![\"Iran](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/03\/Iran_Regimes_Leader_Bashes_West_in_New_Year_Speech.jpg\" "\\"Iran_Regimes_Leader_Bashes_West_in_New_Year_Speech\\"")
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By\u00a0Mohammad Sadat Khansari<\/p>\n
The Supreme Leader of Iran used his first speech of the Iranian New Year to criticise Western countries regarding the 2015 nuclear deal and Europe\u2019s special financial mechanism.<\/p>\n
Ali Khamenei told a crowd in Mashhad, northeast Iran, on March 21: \u201cThis financial channel is more like a joke. A bitter joke. Like in the past, Europeans have stabbed [us] in the back.\u201d<\/p>\n
He then repeated his previous statements about Europe being untrustworthy and called Western politicians \u201cbarbarians\u201d, in spite of their \u201cstylish appearance and the use of eau de cologne\u201d.<\/p>\n
He even complained that Europe has \u201cpractically left the [nuclear deal, otherwise known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)] because they haven\u2019t honoured their obligations to the JCPOA\u201d. The obligations were to remove sanctions on Iran, which Europe has done, however, the effectiveness has been mitigated somewhat by the US withdrawal from the deal and reimposement of sanctions. That\u2019s why Europe came up with the special financial mechanism, known as the INSTEX, but in order for Iran to benefit, they do have to pass anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing bills.<\/p>\n
These statements by Khamenei came after several of President Hassan Rouhani\u2019s accused Europe in recent weeks of not respecting its commitments to the Iran nuclear deal, including Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who told the Munich Security Conference that \u201claunching INSTEX is far less than the commitments the three European countries had made to rescue the JCPOA\u201d.<\/p>\n
Iranian state-run news outlets reported that this was a \u201csymbolic gesture for Europe\u201d as the bloc \u201ccan\u2019t influence their own companies\u201d to stick to the nuclear deal. While Ahmad Tavakkoli, a member of the powerful Expediency Discernment Council, wrote in a letter to his fellow council members that this \u201cderogatory\u201d agreement is not even equivalent to oil for food and is \u201cconditioned to Iran accepting [the Financial Action Task Force (FAFT) recommendations] swiftly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran is demanding that Europe create mechanisms that guarantee free selling of oil, free financial transactions for oil income money, and free maritime shipping, but INSTEX contains none of that, focusing instead on the sectors \u201cmost essential to the Iranian population \u2013 such as pharmaceutical, medical devices and agri-food goods\u201d.<\/p>\n
In addition, the European Council also expressed \u201cgrave concern\u201d about Iran\u2019s ballistic missile activity and urged Iran to \u201crefrain\u201d from such activities, especially ballistic missile launches, as they are \u201cinconsistent with UN Security Council Resolution 2231\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Council also wrote: \u201cThe Council is deeply concerned by the hostile activities that Iran has conducted on the territory of several Member States and, in this context, decided to list two individuals and one entity. The European Union will continue to demonstrate unity and solidarity in this area and urges Iran to put an immediate end to such unacceptable behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is similar to what the US asked of Iran last year and it’s important to note that none of these things could be deemed unreasonable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Mohammad Sadat Khansari The Supreme Leader of Iran used his first speech of the Iranian New Year to criticise Western countries regarding the 2015 nuclear deal and Europe’s special financial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":52908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[178],"class_list":{"0":"post-25994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran-a-world","8":"tag-save"},"yoast_head":"\n