‘US lifted Iran sanctions only on paper’

DUBAI: 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.

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.