Iran's Supreme Leader accused the United States on Wednesday of scaring businesses away from Tehran and undermining a deal to lift international sanctions.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told hundreds of workers that a global deal, signed between
Iran
and world powers, had lifted financial sanctions, but US obstruction was stopping
Iran
getting the full economic fruits of the agreement.
"On paper the United States allows foreign banks to deal with
Iran, but in practice they create
Iranophobia so no one does business with
Iran," he said in quotes from the speech posted on his website.
Iran
has repeatedly urged Washington to do more to remove obstacles to the banking sector, in the spirit of the July deal with the United States, the European Union, Russia and China to lift most sanctions on
Iran
in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.
But some US sanctions remain, and US banks remain prohibited from doing business with
Iran
directly or indirectly because Washington still accuses Tehran of supporting terrorism and human rights abuses.
US Secretary of State John Kerry told the
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in New York on Saturday that Washington was not trying to stop
Iran
dealing with banks outside the United States.
"There are now opportunities for foreign banks to do business with
Iran
... Unfortunately there seems to be some confusion among some foreign banks and we want to try and clarify that," Kerry said.
