Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday said the outcome of the U.S. elections would not influence Iranian policy towards Washington.
“Iran’s policy regarding the U.S. has been planned and is clear … whoever becomes president in the U.S. will not influence this policy,” Khamenei told Iranian state television.
President Hassan Rowhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif have also repeatedly stressed they do not care about the U.S. election outcome.
Observers, however, believe that Iran is hoping for a defeat of President Donald Trump and a win for Democratic candidate Joe Biden, which could lead to the U.S. rejoining the 2015 nuclear deal and the lifting of U.S. sanctions against Iran.
Rowhani and Zarif have suggested that Iran would be prepared to enter negotiations with the U.S. if it returns to the deal, which limits Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.
Trump took the U.S. out of the deal and imposed new unilateral sanctions on Iran, plunging the country into the deepest recession of its history.