TEHRAN - In his last meeting with outgoing President Hassan Rouhani and cabinet members on Wednesday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the West as being unreliable when it comes to honoring their commitments.

“It became clear in this administration (the Rouhani administration) that trusting the West will not work as they are not going to help us and they will strike a blow whenever they can. When they do not strike a blow, it is because they do not have the means to do so. Whenever they could, they struck a blow. This is a very important lesson,” the Leader remarked.

Referring to the recent nuclear negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA) , the Leader said, “The Americans say on paper and in words that they are going to remove the sanctions, but they have not and will not remove them.”

He emphasized that the country's national affairs should never become contingent on the West’s cooperation because that will definitely lead to failure.

“Whenever you made our affairs contingent on reaching an agreement with the West and the U.S., you were unsuccessful and unable to advance. But whenever you didn’t count on them and began to use different methods of our own, you made progress,” Ayatollah Khamenei pointed out. 

Expressing his gratitude for the endeavors of the Iranian diplomats in the recent nuclear negotiations, Ayatollah Khamenei stated, “The Americans have stuck to their obstinate position. On paper and in words, they promise to remove the sanctions, but they have not and will not remove them.”

On the Americans’ condition for lifting the sanctions, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution said, “The Americans have set a condition. They say, ‘if you want the sanctions to be removed, we should include a clause in the agreement which states that we must negotiate and agree over certain matters in the future. If you do not accept this clause, we do not have an agreement at the present time.’ What is this clause? This clause is actually a pretext for their future interference.”

In analyzing this condition set by the U.S., the Leader said, “This is about the JCOPA itself, about renewing it and about various other matters such as missiles and regional issues. If we say later on that we are not going to negotiate over these matters because the policies of the country and our parliament do not allow us to do so, they will say that there is no deal because we have supposedly violated it.”

Describing the U.S. behavior as “malicious,” Ayatollah Khamenei stressed the U.S. shows no hesitation in breaking its obligations. “They have already violated the agreement one time without facing any difficulty for doing so. Now too, when they are told to promise and guarantee that they will not violate it another time, they respond that they cannot give such a guarantee. They are saying this explicitly to our friends and our diplomats. They say they cannot and will not promise such a thing.”

At the end of his statements, the Leader advised the future administration and those who are active in politics to learn from this experience and take it into consideration.