Ayatollah Khamenei: If Americans Tear Up the JCPOA, We Will Burn It

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of Iran, stated on Tuesday, June 15, during a meeting with senior officials of the Islamic Republic, that "we do not violate the JCPOA," but if the Americans "tear up the JCPOA, we will burn it." According to the official website of the Leader of the Islamic Republic, Khamenei remarked: "We do not violate the JCPOA, but if the other side violates it, as the candidates for the U.S. presidency are threatening to tear it up; if they tear it up, we will burn it." These statements come as Iranian Foreign Ministry officials have repeatedly dismissed the remarks of Donald Trump, a presidential candidate in the U.S., as "election propaganda" and stated that claims made during the U.S. election campaign should not be taken seriously. Donald Trump, a potential Republican candidate in the U.S. presidential election, has stated that his main priority is to annul the nuclear agreement with Iran. In contrast, the Obama administration has warned that if the next U.S. president takes action against the nuclear agreement with Iran, it will have dangerous consequences. Khamenei also mentioned that "both supporters and opponents of the JCPOA exaggerate" and criticized the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), claiming it allows for the enemy's exploitation. Referring to the six world powers negotiating with Iran, he stated: "The points I am making are absolutely not related to the brothers who have worked hard but rather to the other side. The JCPOA has a flaw that has allowed the enemy to exploit it." Khamenei claimed that "the other side's duty in the JCPOA was to lift sanctions, which they have not done," emphasizing that "the banking issues remain unresolved, the insurance for oil tankers is done at a limited level, and our oil money and funds in other countries are not being returned to us." He accused the Americans of "not fulfilling a significant part of their commitments, while we have made the upfront payments and halted 20% enrichment and the Fordow and Arak facilities." Khamenei accused those he calls the "enemy" of wanting to "stop or destroy the capabilities of the Islamic Republic or at least prevent their growth." He called for Iran to increase its capabilities as much as possible, adding that "if we increase (Iran's power), then we can tell the people to be at ease." Despite acknowledging the nuclear agreement in Vienna, Khamenei has repeatedly criticized it, stating on June 3 that "we should not forget the experience of nuclear negotiations; if we make concessions, the U.S. will not abandon its destructive role." Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also emphasized on April 6 that the Vienna nuclear agreement is "never a document of honor" and that the people accepted it "with reluctance." Meanwhile, the President of Iran has repeatedly stated that the Vienna nuclear agreement has removed the "ominous shadow of war" from Iran and has brought "political and then economic victory" to the Islamic Republic. He stated on April 5 that critics of the Vienna nuclear agreement "seem to have forgotten that if there had been no JCPOA, we would not have been able to export even a barrel of oil today." Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council, also described the serious opposition of American Republicans, Israel, and "Gulf Arab states" to the Vienna nuclear agreement and the "collaboration" of some "hardliners" inside Iran with them as "astonishing," stating that "some inside say we should violate the JCPOA."