The Leader made the remarks in a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his cabinet in Tehran on Sunday. The meeting mostly focused on economic problems facing the country with Ayatollah Khamenei offering ways on how to overcome them.
Ayatollah Khamenei noted that drawing up a “stable economic roadmap” was needed to solve the country’s economic problems, emphasizing that solution of those problems must not be made conditional on the continuation of the JCPOA.
“Of course the European sides [to the JCPOA] are obligated to provide necessary guarantees with regard to the JCPOA, but the country’s economy must not be tied to this issue,” the Leader emphasized.
The Leader made the remarks in a meeting with President Hassan Rouhani and his cabinet members on Sunday.
During the meeting , Ayatollah Khamenei highlighted the country’s capability for overcoming economic woes through relentless efforts of all officials and cooperation from all people, and discussed the conditions and necessities for confronting the enemies’ plots in the current situation.
Ayatollah Khamenei then highlighted the need for day-by-day expansion of diplomacy and foreign relations, adding “except for a few instances such as the US, Iran’s relations with the East and the West must be further improved and practical and purposeful diplomatic moves must be increased.”
The Leader noted that the condition for success in any arena is having a strong spirit, motivation, courage and determination, and regarded the economy team of Rouhani's administration as the pivot and main actor for action and dynamism in the country and urged all other departments to coordinate with them.
Recently, Presidents of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Austria had a joint press conference and stressed the importance of deepening relations.
JCPOA is a very important agreement for Iran, EU and the world, he said, adding: "What United States did was against the law, UNSC resolutions and multilateral obligations, and without a doubt, this will be to the US and others' detriment".
"The decision that the US has taken is not beneficial for anybody and is one of those weird decisions that a government makes, which is against its own and others' national interests," continued Rouhani.
US President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Washington was walking away from the nuclear agreement and that he planned to reinstate US nuclear sanctions on Iran and impose "the highest level" of economic bans on the Islamic Republic.
Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.
Since the US president pulled Washington out of the nuclear deal, European countries have been scrambling to ensure that Iran gets enough economic benefits to persuade it to stay in the deal. The remaining parties have vowed to stay in the accord.
