Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday accused US President Joe Biden of having the "
same
" demands vis-à-vis Tehran as his predecessor Donald Trump on the Iranian nuclear issue.
Read alsoNuclear: Iran steps up production of 60% enriched uranium (IAEA)
"
The current US government is no different from the previous one because what it demands of Iran on the nuclear issue is, in different words, the same as what Trump demanded,
" Ayatollah said Khamenei in a speech excerpts from which have been published on his official website.
A senior official in Tehran also indicated that Iran reserves the right to a "
reciprocal response
" to Washington, in the aftermath of threats agitated by the American president, Joe Biden, in the presence of the Israeli prime minister.
Upon receiving Naftali Bennett at the White House, Joe Biden affirmed that the United States is committed to ensuring that "
Iran never develops a nuclear weapon
".
“
We favor diplomacy (...).
But if diplomacy fails, we are prepared to look to other options,
”Biden warned.
"
The emphasis placed by Bennett and Biden (...) on the use of other options against Iran, in addition to constituting an illegal threat against another country, establishes for Iran the right to a reciprocal response against these available options
”, reacted on Twitter the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Iranian National Security, Ali Chamkhani.
An international agreement still fragile
Naftali Bennett, who like his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu accuses Iran of seeking to acquire the atomic bomb in secret (which the Islamic Republic has always denied), is opposed to the international Iranian nuclear agreement concluded in 2015 in Vienna between Tehran and the international community.
This pact offers Iran relief from Western and UN sanctions in exchange for its commitment never to acquire atomic weapons, and a drastic reduction in its nuclear program, placed under strict UN control. .
But it has threatened to be shattered since the former President of the United States, Donald Trump, in May 2018 announced Washington's unilateral withdrawal from the agreement and the reinstatement of sanctions vis-à-vis Tehran.
In response, Iran gradually abandoned from the following year most of the safeguards to its nuclear activities that it had accepted in the agreement.
Joe Biden tried to bring Washington back into the fold of the Vienna agreement, and negotiations began in April between Iranians, Westerners, Russians and Chinese in the Austrian capital to allow this reintegration.
The last session took place at the end of June after the Iranian presidential election of June 18, won by the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raïssi.
Since it was invested in early August, Iran's partners in the Vienna talks have been watching for a sign of Tehran's willingness to resume these talks. But the new government affirms that in foreign policy, its priority goes to the countries “
neighbors (of Iran and to) Asia
”.
