Iranian Supreme Leader Office/ EPA
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian Supreme Leader.
Sanctions “null and void”. Iran announced on Saturday that it was no longer bound by the restrictions on its nuclear program defined in an international agreement concluded 10 years ago, which expired on the same day.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said this Monday that US President Donald Trump is “dreaming” The United States is believed to have destroyed Iranian nuclear facilities.
Last June, as part of a conflict between Israel and Iran that lasted 12 days, the United States joined the Israeli ally in bombing operations on alleged nuclear infrastructures of the Iranian regime.
“That is great, keep dreaming!“, said the Iranian leader, referring to Trump’s repeated statements that Tehran’s nuclear program was “totally destroyed”.
“Whoever judges that is to say that a country should or should not have [o direito] to nuclear energy?” asked Khamenei during a meeting with athletes in the Iranian capital.
Nuclear deal is over
On Saturday, the Iran announced that it was no longer bound by restrictions on its nuclear program defined in an international agreement concluded 10 years ago, which expired on the same day, reiterating, however, its commitment to diplomacy.
This agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, signed in 2015 by Iran, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, Russia and China, aimed to regulate the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of UN sanctions, which were weighing heavily on the Iranian economy.
The deadline for the document had been set for October 18, 2025, exactly 10 years after the text was approved by the UN through resolution 2231.
O agreement limited Iran’s uranium enrichment to 3.67% and provided for strict supervision of nuclear activities by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear oversight body.
Despite denying it, Iran is often encouraged by the West and Israel, a declared enemy of Tehran, to secretly develop nuclear weapons.
From now on, “all provisions [do acordo]including restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program and related mechanisms, are considered closed“, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote on Saturday.
The agreement had already suffered several setbacks. In 2018, during Donald Trump’s first presidential term, United States unilaterally withdrew from the agreement and reinstated sanctions against Iran. In retaliation, Tehran gradually withdrew from certain commitments set out in the agreement.
According to the IAEA, Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons to enrich uranium to a high level (60%), close to the technical limit of 90%, necessary to manufacture an atomic bomb.
Tehran also all cooperation with the IAEA in July, after the one triggered by Israel. The United States also carried out attacks against some Iranian nuclear facilities during that conflict and, in retaliation, .
The conflict put an end to a series of indirect negotiations between the United States and Iran over Iran’s nuclear program, which had been ongoing since April. Subsequently, and at the initiative of France, the United Kingdom and Germany, the UN reinstated sanctions against Iran at the end of September, suspended 10 years ago.
The end of the nuclear deal makes sanctions “null and void”said the head of Iranian diplomacy, Abbas Araghchi, in a letter sent to the UN on Saturday.
Although Iran signed an agreement with the IAEA in September in Cairo to define the reestablishment of cooperation, the three European countries criticized Tehran’s lack of collaboration with the United Nations nuclear agency and called for the resumption of negotiations with the United States.
