Iran’s supreme leader says US promises not credible

Iran’s supreme leader said Sunday that the U.S. would have to reverse sanctions put in place by former President Trump before Tehran would return to the enrichment limits set under the 2015 nuclear deal, citing a lack of trust in U.S. promises.

Reuters reported that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the remarks during a speech carried by Iranian state TV.

“We trusted America at the time of [former President] Obama and fulfilled our commitments. But they didn’t. The Americans said on paper that sanctions will be lifted, but they didn’t lift sanctions in practice,” Khamenei said, according to the news agency. “Their promises have no credibility for us.”

“The Americans must lift all sanctions. We will verify it and if sanctions are…really cancelled, we will return to our obligations without any problems,” Khamenei said. “We have a lot of patience and we are not in a hurry.”

In a statement to The Hill, a State Department spokesperson contended that the U.S. would not accept any conditions set by Iran in order to secure a meeting between the two governments.

“The Biden Administration will not make decisions based on artificial Iranian deadlines, nor will it make concessions to get to a meeting,” said a spokesperson, who added: “There are now challenging issues to work through that require talks. We have been clear that the best, most sustainable way to get Iran back into a nuclear box is diplomacy. There was an invitation from the European Union to all of the parties to the JCPOA, including Iran, and including the United States, to discuss whether there is a way back to Iran meeting its obligations. We said we would attend. Iran so far has said no. The ball is in their court to see if they are serious about re-engaging or not.”

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran reached near-conflict at several points during the Trump administration, though the two countries avoided all-out war.

The U.S. continues to accuse Iran of backing Houthi rebels in Yemen, while the U.S. has withdrawn some support for Saudi-backed forces in that conflict.

Dozens of House Democrats and Republicans wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this month calling for a “comprehensive” approach to Iran that goes beyond restoring the 2015 nuclear deal and addresses what they called “the full range of threats that Iran poses to the region.”

Updated at 2:50 p.m.