Tejaratgardan – “The Americans failed in their Maximum Pressure policy. They assumed if they apply the policy of Maximum Pressure on Iran, it would accept to compromise with them. To this moment, by God’s grace and power, they learned Maximum Pressure only afflicted themselves with problems,” said Supreme Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei on Wednesday in a meeting with members of the High Council of the Commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC). 

“Till just recently, to form a symbolic show of Iran’s surrender, and to make the Iranian president meet with them, they even started to beseech us and used their European friends as a mediator. They failed so far, and this policy will fail forever,” he added, referring to the US’s direct and indirect requests of meeting with the President of the Islamic Republic on the sidelines the UNGA.

The Iranian leader made it clear that Iran will continue to reduce the implementation of its commitment within the nuclear deal, and asserted “Concerning the JCPOA, we will seriously continue to reduce our commitments; the [Iranian] Atomic Energy Organization is responsible here, and should carefully and completely enact all the reduction of commitments that the Islamic Republic has declared, until we reach the desired results. We will surely achieve our desired goals, by God’s grace.”

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution elaborated on Iran’s growing domestic capabilities to overcome economic challenges, saying that “In the face of hostility to our economy, we sought and found remedies in the light of domestic capabilities. As you can view now, some had previously predicted that the year 2019 will be a bad year in terms of economic problems, nevertheless, now the officials in the country are saying that we have had some slight economic growth in this year.”

“Of course, people have difficulties in their livelihoods, but if the authorities continue to act strongly, reasonably and persistently, it will surely have a gradual impact on people’s lives and livelihoods,” he noted. 

The sanctions imposed on oil sales, which are increasingly focused on the Maximum Pressure, is a short-term problem for the country because, in the long run, it has the benefit of breaking the reliance on oil revenues. This tactical pressure helps us strategically,” he noted, discussing challenges facing Iran’s oil sale due to illegal sanctions imposed on the country.