Khamenei: US Must Lift Sanctions for Iran to Return to Nuclear Commitments

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivers a televised speech, in Tehran, Iran January 8, 2021. (Handout via Reuters)
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivers a televised speech, in Tehran, Iran January 8, 2021. (Handout via Reuters)
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Khamenei: US Must Lift Sanctions for Iran to Return to Nuclear Commitments

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivers a televised speech, in Tehran, Iran January 8, 2021. (Handout via Reuters)
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivers a televised speech, in Tehran, Iran January 8, 2021. (Handout via Reuters)

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Sunday that the United States should lift all sanctions if Washington wants Tehran to reverse its nuclear steps.

“Iran has fulfilled all its obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal, not the United States and the three European countries ... If they want Iran to return to its commitments, the United States must lift all sanctions first,” Khamenei wrote on Twitter.

“After verifying whether all sanctions have been lifted, then we will return to full compliance,” he wrote.

US President Joe Biden, who took office last month, has said that if Tehran returned to strict compliance with the 2015 nuclear pact, Washington would follow suit and use that as a springboard to a broader agreement that might restrict Iran’s missile development and regional activities.

Former US President Donald Trump exited the nuclear accord between Iran and six powers in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.

Iran has breached the deal in a step-by-step response to Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy, but it has repeatedly said it could quickly reverse those violations if US sanctions are removed.



US Joins Israeli Air Campaign, Strikes 3 Nuclear Sites in Iran

This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows vehicles at Fordo enrichment facility in Iran on Thursday, June 19, 2025. (Maxar Technologies via AP)
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows vehicles at Fordo enrichment facility in Iran on Thursday, June 19, 2025. (Maxar Technologies via AP)
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US Joins Israeli Air Campaign, Strikes 3 Nuclear Sites in Iran

This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows vehicles at Fordo enrichment facility in Iran on Thursday, June 19, 2025. (Maxar Technologies via AP)
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows vehicles at Fordo enrichment facility in Iran on Thursday, June 19, 2025. (Maxar Technologies via AP)

The US military struck three sites in Iran early Sunday, inserting itself into Israel’s effort to decapitating the country’s nuclear program.

The decision to directly involve the US comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country’s air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities. But US and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and a 30,000-lb. bunker buster bomb they alone can carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily-fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground.

President Donald Trump was the first to disclose the strikes.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that attacks targeted the country’s Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites. The agency did not elaborate.