Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 27
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has accused the United States of spreading Iranophobia with an aim to scare foreign investors of dealing with Iran.
Khamenei made the remarks during a meeting with thousands of workers from across the country on Apr. 27 in Tehran, held on the occasion of the National Workers Week, the Iranian leader's official website reported.
"The US allows foreign banks to deal with Iran on paper, but its Iranophobia project prevents any deal," added Khamenei. "The US intrigues and deceives, yet complains why we are pessimist."
Elsewhere in his remarks, Khamenei said the domestic production should be considered a "holy" issue, adding the products manufactured locally should not be imported at all.
The sale and consumption of foreign goods should be seen as a "counter-value" unless there is no similar home-made product, he added.
Khamenei's remarks come only months after international sanctions against Iran were removed as the nuclear deal entered the implementation stage last January.
Iranian officials have previously called on the US to do more to remove obstacles to integration of Iran's banking sector to the global system.
Iran has also asked the EU to confront Washington's "obstruction" of the nuclear deal's implementation.
Earlier, Valiollah Seif, the head of Iran's central bank, accused the US and the EU of failing to honor the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, aka nuclear deal) by keeping Iran locked out of the international financial system.