Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani is in New York meeting with European leaders and attempting to salvage the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear deal the United States exited in 2018. European leaders have been encouraging Rouhani to meet with Donald Trump while both are in New York in order to de-escalate tensions between the two countries. Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the final decision-maker on state matters in Tehran, said it is time to move on.
During a speech Sept. 26 to members of the Assembly of Experts, Khamenei said Europe’s enmity with Iran does not differ in principle from America’s enmity toward Iran. “On the surface, the Europeans enter as mediators and make long speeches, but they are all empty,” Khamenei said.