Khamenei says Iran to continue support of regional forces, needs missiles for defense

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ANKARA, June 4, (Agencies): Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday that Iran had no intention of curbing its influence in the Middle East and urged Arab youth to stand up to US pressure. “Young Arabs, you should take action and the initiative to control your own future … Some regional countries act like their own people’s enemies … We will continue to back oppressed nations and resistance forces in the region,” Khamenei said in a speech, broadcast live on television.

Khamenei added that Iran would respond harshly to any attack and that Western demands for limits on its ballistic missile programme are a “dream that will never come true”. Tensions between Iran and the West have resurged since President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of world powers’ 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran, calling it deeply flawed. European signatories are scrambling to save the accord, which they see as crucial to forestalling an Iranian nuclear weapons, by protecting trade with Iran against the reimposition of US sanctions to dissuade Tehran from quitting the deal. Under the deal, the Islamic Republic curbed its disputed nuclear energy programe and in return won a lifting of most international sanctions that had hobbled its economy.

One of Trump’s demands — which European allies back in principle — is negotiations to rein in Iran’s ballistic missile programme, which was not covered by the nuclear deal. Khamenei again said this was non-negotiable. “Some Europeans are talking about limiting our defensive missile programme. I am telling the Europeans, ‘Limiting our missile work is a dream that will never come true,” he said in a televised speech.

Trump also objected that the 2015 deal did not address Iran’s nuclear work beyond 2025 or its role in conflicts in Yemen and Syria. Though committed to the deal, European powers share Trump’s concerns and want broader talks with Iran to address the issues. “Our enemies have staged economic and psychological … warfare against us and new American sanctions are part of it,” Khamenei told a gathering to mark the 29th anniversary of the death of Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

“Tehran will attack 10 times more if attacked by enemies … The enemies don’t want an independent Iran in the region … We will continue our support for oppressed nations,” he said. The world should stand up to Washington’s bullying behaviour, Iran’s foreign minister was quoted as saying on Sunday by state media in a letter to counterparts, as the top diplomat intensifies efforts to save a nuclear deal after a US exit.

Trump pulled out last month from the 2015 accord between Iran and world powers that lifted sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs to its nuclear programme.

The remaining signatories of the deal — France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China — still see the international accord as the best chance of stopping Tehran developing a nuclear weapon and are trying to salvage it. In a letter from Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to his counterparts last week, he asked “the remaining signatories and other trade partners” to “make up for Iran’s losses” caused by the US exit, if they sought to save the deal. “The JCPOA (nuclear deal) does not belong to its signatories, so one party can reject it based on domestic policies or political differences with a former ruling administration,” Zarif was quoted as saying in the letter, parts of which were published by the state news agency IRNA on Sunday. The nuclear deal was the result of “meticulous, sensitive and balanced multilateral talks”, Zarif said, and could not be renegotiated as the United States has demanded.

He said US “illegal withdrawal” from the deal and its “bullying methods to bring other governments in line” with that decision have discredited the rule of law in international arena. Meanwhile, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog called Monday on Iran to ensure “timely and proactive cooperation” with inspections mandated under the 2015 deal with world powers over its nuclear programme.

Speaking at the first meeting of the IAEA’s board of governors since Trump threw the future of the deal in doubt in May with his decision to withdraw, Director General Yukiya Amano said the agency had access to all sites in Iran that it needed to visit. However, as in the agency’s last report on Iran in May, Amano said that “timely and proactive cooperation by Iran in providing such access would facilitate implementation … and enhance confidence”.

In its last report the IAEA confirmed that Iran was still implementing the accord. A senior diplomat in Vienna, where the IAEA is based, said the call for timely cooperation did not mean that Iran had breached any of the rules of the accord but that the agency was “encouraging (Iran) to go above and beyond the requirements” of the deal.

Tehran could, for example, invite inspectors to sites they had not demanded access to, the diplomat said. The other signatories to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) have been scrambling to find ways to keep it going since Trump’s announcement that he would pull out and reinstate US sanctions. Last month, a senior Iranian official said Trump’s actions had left the landmark accord in “intensive care”.

As its price for staying in the deal, Iran has demanded European powers present an “economic package” to Iran that would mitigate the effects of US sanctions. Tehran has threatened to restart its uranium enrichment programme at an “industrial level” if the 2015 pact falls apart. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is heading to Europe in a bid to rally support from key allies for amending the international nuclear deal with Iran and for pushing Iranian forces out of neighboring Syria. Netanyahu is set to meet with leaders from Germany, France and Britain, beginning with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday.

Ahead of his departure, Netanyahu said Monday that archenemy Iran would top his agenda and voiced optimism for the visit. Israel has been a leading critic of the nuclear deal, and more recently, has said it will not allow Iran to establish a permanent military presence in Syria. “I will meet there with three leaders and will discuss two subjects: Iran and Iran,” he said, adding he wanted pressure on Iran’s nuclear program to be “intensified.” “It could be that on this matter there isn’t a consensus right now, but with time, in my opinion, that understanding will be reached.”

Netanyahu unsuccessfully tried to block the landmark deal that which gave Iran relief from crippling sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program when it was negotiated in 2015 under President Barack Obama. The Israeli leader has found a welcome ally in President Donald Trump, who last month withdrew the United States from the deal. Both the US and Israel hope Trump’s withdrawal can lead all sides into addressing what they say are the deal’s shortcomings — including “sunset” provisions that end restrictions on Iranian nuclear activities, such as enriching uranium, as well as permitting Iran to continue to develop longrange missiles.

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