Don’t rely on ‘vicious’ EU package for resolving economic issues

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution made the remarks in a meeting with the Iranian president and other cabinet members back in July 2018. Here is what the Leader said, which has just been published for the first time by Khamenei.ir:

You should follow tasks in a serious way within the laws of the country. You should not wait for anything or anyone. One day, we made the economy of the country dependent on the JCPOA [the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action]. The JCPOA failed to eliminate our economic problems and to help us in a noticeable way. The result was that the people became “conditional” towards the JCPOA so much so that when that dude [Donald Trump] announced that he wanted to get out of the deal, we experienced turbulences in our market. This has continued since he has declared so. Consequently, we have become conditional. We have conditioned the people to this situation, too.

As for the European packages and proposals, we should not condition the people again. Of course, the Europeans have no other choice, much to their displeasure! They should say how they want to defend our interests through these proposals which are referred to as “packages”. However, you should not turn this into one of the main issues of the country. Whether or not European packages are offered to us, we have certain tasks to carry out in the country. We have certain duties and regulations. These duties should be fulfilled and you should pursue them. We should not tie down the economy of the country to something which is not in our control.

Of course, they are behaving in a nasty way—I do not want to enter into the discussion about the European packages, European behavior and the like, as this requires a detailed discussion—I have said to Mr. President that they are sticking to their November timetable and they are constantly putting it off to November so that they give us very little or give us nothing once everything is firmly established and once sanctions are fully in place. This is what they are after. This shows their malevolence.

I read in the newspaper that Trump has said that he wanted to give some words of advice to Theresa May about adopting strict measures against Iran, but that it was her, instead, who gave him words of advice in that regard. They are such people. Then, they call Dr. Rouhani to express respect and to show their good will. They should be viewed like this [with suspicion] because they are vicious people. They are very vicious. I have tons of things to say about the Europeans, not because of their present-day policies, rather because of the viciousness that European governments have shown in the course of the past centuries. I have many things to say, but I do not want to discuss these matters now.

In any case, you should not tie down the economy of the country to European packages. We have certain tasks to carry out inside the country and we should attend to them. Of course, they should certainly abide by it [the packages]. However, we will not rely on them for resolving our problems.

Of course, I believe that relations should be maintained. Friends who have been in contact with me all these years know that when it comes to diplomatic relations, I believe that relations should be strengthened, developed, actualized and expanded. This is what I believe in. I do not believe in isolation, breaking off relations and the like, except for a few cases like that of the US. Apart from that, I do not believe in these things. Our relations with the East should be strengthened. Our relations with the West should be strengthened as well and we should do this as much as we can. The operational and purposeful activities in the realm of diplomacy should be expanded. In other words, the diplomacy of the country should expand its activities: purposeful activities.

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