TEHRAN — Iran’s supreme leader said on Wednesday that he did not believe that all sanctions against his country would be lifted, a move he had previously said was an essential condition for nuclear talks to succeed.
The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in Iran on any nuclear agreement between his country and world powers, and who has commented regularly on the negotiations, has stressed that he is not optimistic about whether a compromise can be reached. But in a speech on Wednesday, referring to the United States, he said he did not believe that sanctions would be lifted “even if the talks continue on the basis of what they dictate.”
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An influential website, Irannuc.ir, which is critical of the negotiations, wrote that Ms. Afkham’s language was “worrying” and actually meant that there could be an agreement in phases.
