Iran leader slams his president, foreign minister over nuke deal handling

As tensions with the US mount, Iran’s supreme leader said Wednesday the country’s president and foreign minister didn’t act as he wished in implementing the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

The comments posted on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s official website are the first time he’s blamed both President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif by name in his concerns about the deal.

“In some extent, I did not believe in the way that the nuclear deal was implemented. Many times I reminded both the president and the foreign minister,” he said.

He did not elaborate on how he thought Rouhani and Zarif should have implemented the nuclear deal, but hawks for years have criticized the accord for giving too much away from the West without enough economic gain.

Khamenei has final say on all matters of state. His remarks to hard-line students gathered to hear a Ramadan lecture indicate the growing power of hard-liners within Iran a year after US President Donald Trump withdrew America from the nuclear deal.

In this January 16, 2016 file photo, then-secretary of state John Kerry talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Vienna, after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) verified that Iran has met all conditions under the nuclear deal. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool via AP, File)

Relations between Washington and Tehran plummeted a year ago when Trump pulled out of the multinational agreement negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama under which Tehran drastically scaled back its nuclear work in return for promises of sanctions relief.

Tensions have ratcheted up further this month, with Washington announcing additional economic measures against Tehran, before deploying an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the region over a still-unexplained threat it perceived from Iran.

Trump further stoked the fire in a tweet on Sunday that suggested Iran would be destroyed if it attacked US interests.

A day later, Iran announced it had quadrupled its production capacity of low-enriched uranium. Iranian officials made a point to stress that the uranium would be enriched only to the 3.67% limit set under the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, making it usable for a power plant but far below what’s needed for an atomic weapon.

But by increasing production, Iran soon will exceed the stockpile limitations set by the nuclear accord. Tehran has set a July 7 deadline for Europe to set new terms for the deal, or it will enrich closer to weapons-grade levels in a Mideast already on edge.

In this May 16, 2019 photo released by the US Navy, Lt. Nicholas Miller, from Spring, Texas, and Lt. Sean Ryan, from Gautier, Miss., launch an F-18 Super Hornet from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jeff Sherman, US Navy via AP)

Later on Monday Trump appeared to play down the immediate threat posed by Iran and said he was ready to talk if Tehran takes the first step.

But Zarif accused the US of “playing a very, very dangerous game” in a Tuesday CNN interview, warning of “painful consequences for everybody” if tensions with the Islamic republic escalated.

On Wednesday, a prominent reformist lawmaker said Tehran will “under no circumstances” enter a war either directly or indirectly with the US.

Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh’s comments, reported by the semi-official ILNA news agency, carry additional heft as he serves as the chairman of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission.

“Under no circumstance will we enter a war,” Falahatpisheh said, according to ILNA. “No group can announce that it has entered a proxy war from Iran’s side.”