On February 18, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Iranians to “resist sanctions” and not allow Western countries to place conditions on the country's nuclear program. In a public speech, Khamenei warned that Iran can impose sanctions on the West if necessary. “Iran has the world’s largest total reserves of oil and [natural] gas, the gas that the world and Europe are in need of,” he emphasized. The following are excerpts with a video posted on Khamenei’s quasi-official YouTube channel claiming that the U.S. government is “ignorant” about Iran and its negotiating position.
“The enemy is using the lever of sanctions to the hilt and their goal is to stop our people's progress.”
The enemy is making maximum use of #sanctions against Iranian people. They intend to stop the movement of the people.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) February 18, 2015“I believe that if we allow them [Western countries] to dictate to us on the nuclear issue, they will still keep the sanctions in place because what they are against is the very foundation of our revolution.”
#Iran has the biggest oil-gas reserves of the world and if #sanctions are to be imposed then the Iranian nation will sanction the West.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) February 18, 2015Reliance on #oil revenues should be cut off &reliance should be on domestic production& taxes.There shouldn’t be #tax evasion among the rich
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) February 18, 2015ISIS
“They [U.S. officials] wrote a letter to the Iranian foreign ministry promising not to support Daesh [Islamic State], not knowing that the evidence in photographs of their military assistance to Daesh was already in the hands of the revolutionary forces.”
Revolutionary fighters and public forces that fight #ISIS have images which clearly show #US arms support for ISIS. pic.twitter.com/nu9oFatSOa
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) February 18, 2015The following video was also published on Khamenei’s YouTube channel on February 18.