Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei during a meeting with commanders, pilots, and staff members of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) on Sunday said that Iran will retrace its nuclear countermeasures once the United States lifts its sanctions in a manner that could be verifiable by Tehran.
“Iran will return to its JCOPA obligations once the US fully lifts its sanctions in action and not in words or on paper, and once the sanction relief is verified by Iran,” the Leader said, referring by abbreviation to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the official name of the landmark nuclear agreement that Iran signed with the P5+1 group of states — the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany — in Vienna in 2015.
The meeting was held on the anniversary of a historic development that came days before the 1979 victory of Islamic Revolution that deposed the US-backed Pahlavi regime. The event saw Homafaran, air force officers during Pahlavi regime, pledging their allegiance to the Father of the Islamic Revolution and Founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini (may his soul rest in peace).
In his Sunday’s remarks, the Leader said it was the “definitive and irreversible” policy of the Islamic Republic that the United States ought to first fully eliminate the sanctions before Iran could reverse its retaliatory measures.
Referring to the new conditions set by the US administration on rejoining the JCPOA, the Leader said, “The Americans and the Europeans have no right to set any conditions [of their own] as they violated their JCPOA commitments,” adding that Iran would pay no heed to the “idle talk” of some “undeserving” American and European officials in this regard.
“They initially put some of the sanctions in abeyance for a brief period, but then reimposed and even intensified them,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in reference to Washington and its allies’ initial limited compliance with the JCPOA. Therefore, they have no right to come up with any conditions, the Leader reiterated.
Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to Washington’s past failures to hurt Iran’s Islamic establishment as one of its numerous miscalculations concerning the country.
The Leader particularly recalled former US President Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton’s failed prediction that Washington would successfully enable the so-called “regime change” in Iran by early 2019.
“One of those very first-class idiots had said two years ago that they would be celebrating the New Year in Tehran in January 2019,” Ayatollah Khamenei noted.
“Now, that person has entered the dustbin of history and his boss (Trump) has been kicked out of the White House in a humiliating manner. By God’s grace, though, the Islamic Republic still stands tall,” the Leader noted.
Ayatollah Khamenei named the US support for the riots that broke out in Iran in 2009 as another instance of Washington’s miscalculations in its efforts to bring about the collapse of the Islamic Republic.
Washington’s excessive trust in the Pahlavi regime’s military, the Leader said, was yet another calculation that was proven wrong when the air force personnel turned their backs on the US-backed regime.
Ayatollah Khamenei described the officers deserting the army and joining the masses of revolutionary people as a “miracle-like” development that hugely contributed to the Revolution’s victory.
However, the Leader advised the officials to always beware of the enemy and its error-riddled calculations and “constantly increase the constituents of national power.”
Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to Trump’s chaotic final days in the White House, which culminated in the invasion of the Capitol Hill by his supporters.
The Leader said the incidents were not to be underplayed and judged only in light of the twilight of an American president. Rather, those developments in fact marked “the twilight of America’s reputation, power, and social integrity,” he noted.
The Leader hailed the recent back-to-back military exercises featuring the Army and Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as efforts by “the children of this country to boost national security,” calling the maneuvers “a cause for pride.”
Ayatollah Khamenei, meanwhile, denounced certain regional states for relying on extra-regional sources for their own security, noting that those very same foreign powers would desert them when their assistance is required.
The Leader cited the likes of Iran’s monarch including Egypt’s former dictator Hosni Mubarak or Tunisia’s Zain al-Abedin bin Ali as examples of regional rulers, who mistakenly placed their trust in foreign powers.