Iran 'needs nuclear power,' supreme leader insists

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s supreme leader Wednesday hinted that his country might step up its nuclear program, signaling a possible escalation in an already volatile relationship with Washington after President Donald Trump announced he was pulling the United States out of the 2015 nuclear deal.

Trump said Tuesday that the United States would leave the agreement, under which Iran agreed to strict limits for 15 years on its development of nuclear fuel. The dead was intended to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, in return for an easing of economic sanctions. But now, Trump said, the United States will reimpose sanctions.

Iran has always insisted that its uranium enrichment was intended only to operate nuclear power plants and conduct research, but it also put Iran closer to producing fuel that could be used in atomic bombs.

“Last night, you heard the president of America making petty and mindless statements,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, told a group of teachers in his Tehran office, according to the semiofficial news agency Fars. “There were perhaps more than 10 lies in his statements.”

“He threatened both the system and the nation that ‘I will do this and that,'” Khamenei said. “I say on behalf of the nation of Iran: ‘Mr. Trump, you won’t do a damn thing!'”

The other parties to the deal — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the European Union — continue to support it. Western intelligence agencies say that Tehran has long had an eye toward — and at times has actively pursued — nuclear weapons.

Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a statement Wednesday that Iran was “subject to the world’s most robust nuclear verification regime” and that his nuclear watchdog agency “can confirm that the nuclear-related commitments are being implemented by Iran.”

It was Khamenei who ultimately approved the compromises made in the nuclear agreement in 2015, though he also warned at the time against trusting the Americans.

President Hassan Rouhani of Iran said Tuesday that his country would continue to abide by the agreement, but Khamenei, the spiritual leader for the past 29 years, wields the ultimate power in the nation. On Wednesday, Khamenei seemed to suggest that Iran had given up too much and needed a nuclear program. “When the nuclear issue started, some of the elders of the country said, ‘Why the insistence on keeping the nuclear power? Let it go,'” Khamenei said. “Of course, this was a wrong thing to say. The country needs nuclear power and according to experts, the country will need 20,000 megawatts of nuclear electricity.”

Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States say they want to halt Iran’s development of missiles, but if Tehran were to agree to those demands, “they will bring up other things,” Khamenei said.

Reacting to reports that Trump wants to force “regime change” in Iran, Khamenei said, “wait for the day when Trump is dead, his corpse is fed on by snakes and insects, but the system of the Islamic Republic will still be standing.”

Iranian officials involved in nuclear negotiations say the focus will now be on how European parties to the deal react to Trump’s announcement. The sanctions that the U.S. president promised to revive actively discourage and punish European companies and Asian buyers of oil that do business with Iran.

European officials — still committed to the Iran deal but eager to avoid U.S. penalties — appeared to be unsure of how to respond.

“It falls to the U.S. administration to spell out their view of the way ahead,” Boris Johnson, the British foreign secretary, said.

Ali Khorram, a former Iranian ambassador to China and adviser to the country’s nuclear negotiating team, said that Trump had “violated all international norms that come with such an agreement.”

“If European companies are banned by America to do business with Iran, it is up to Europe to negotiate a solution with the U.S.,” he said.

Iranian military commanders welcomed Trump’s decision, the semiofficial news agency ISNA reported.

“Iranian people never favored the nuclear deal,” the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, was quoted as saying.

Iran already faces a severe economic crisis, with high unemployment, drought and a weakening currency.

But Iranian hard-liners expressed joy at Trump’s decision.

“Now all Iranians blame the United States for their troubles,” said Hamidreza Taraghi, a hard-line political analyst. On social media, many Iranian users shared a hashtag, #untr_US_table, to signal their anger at the United States.

Oil markets were jittery Wednesday, with Brent crude up nearly 3 percent at nearly $77 a barrel, the highest level since late 2014. Traders expressed fear that U.S. sanctions would cut Iranian oil exports, shrinking supplies in an already tight market.

On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter and an adversary of Iran’s, tried to calm the markets. The Energy Ministry released a statement saying that the kingdom “would work with major producers within and outside OPEC as well as major consumers to mitigate the impact of any potential shortages.”

The actions of Saudi Arabia, which applauded Trump’s decision, will be closely watched as the Iran confrontation plays out. Saudi Arabia is the only oil producer that can quickly add large volumes to its output.