Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday vowed Iran will overcome U.S. economic sanctions against the country.
“The U.S. revival of sanctions is aimed to make the Iranians surrender to the U.S. will, but Iran’s national economy is stronger than U.S. sanctions,’’ Khamenei said in his address to Basij (volunteer) forces and senior Iranian military officials at the Azadi Stadium in the capital Tehran.
“This will be another slap on the face of the United States,’’ he warned.
The Iranian top leader called for the unity among all Iranians in the face of the “enemy’s plots,’’ saying “if the enemy sees the unity, power and determination, it will retreat.’’
On Wednesday, the Hague-based International Court of Justice issued a verdict against U.S. unilateral sanctions on Iran, following U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.
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The ruling said the U.S. restoration of sanctions against Iran violates the terms of a 1955 Treaty of Amity between the two countries.
It ordered Washington to ensure that its sanctions against Iran will not affect the humanitarian condition or threaten civil aviation safety.
It also ordered that the U.S. must lift sanctions on “medicines and medical devices, food and agricultural commodities” and on spare parts necessary for the safety of civil aviation imposed against Iran.
In response, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that the U.S. terminated the 1955 Treaty of Amity with Iran.
The treaty once helped establish economic relations and consular rights between the U.S. and Iran.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif slammed the U.S. government for quitting the treaty, saying Washington once again proved its reputation as an “outlaw regime’’ by quitting another international accord.