TEHRAN – In a rare move, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hasadmitted his blunder over Iran nuclear deal.
He admitted he made a mistake in allowing the country’s foreign minister tospeak to his U.S. counterpart during negotiations that led to a 2015international nuclear agreement.
International sanctions on Iran were lifted when the pact with world powerscame into force in 2016, but the expected level of foreign investment tohelp revive the economy has never materialised. Then this May PresidentDonald Trump pulled out of the agreement and is now reimposing U.S.sanctions in stages.
Khamenei, who rarely admits in public to making errors, said he had donejust that over the nuclear talks. “With the issue of the nuclearnegotiations, I made a mistake in permitting our foreign minister to speakwith them. It was a loss for us,” he said.
The comments made by Khamenei, the highest authority in the country, weretweeted on Wednesday by the Khat-e Hezbollah newspaper, a weekly affiliatedwith his official website.
Khamenei made the remarks on Monday, but the newspaper said it was nowquoting them due to inaccurate accounts published previously by other media.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif negotiated the deal with counterpartsfrom six powers, including then U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Tehranundertook to curb its nuclear programme in return for relief from theinternational sanctions which have been throttling its economy.
New U.S. sanctions against Iran took effect last week, and Trump saidcompanies doing business with the country will be barred from the UnitedStates. Washington had said Tehran’s only chance of avoiding the sanctionswould be to accept an offer by Trump to negotiate a tougher nuclear deal.