TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Monday warned Iranian officials not to be deceived by European countries that say they want to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by U.S. President Donald Trump last year.
Ayatollah Khamenei doubled down on his warnings that the U.S. and its European allies are not trustworthy, a point that he first mentioned last Wednesday, as he unveiled a roadmap for the "second phase” of the Islamic Revolution.
"Officials should distinguish friend from foe and never get deceived. Sometimes the enemy flashes its teeth, sometimes it throws punches and sometimes it makes smiles. All these tactics are the same. Even their smile is out of hostility,” the Leader said.
"America’s animosity is obvious; the Europeans also practice deception today,” the Leader explained.
Washington’s major European allies have said they want to save the agreement under which world powers agreed to lift sanctions on Iran in return for curbs to its nuclear program.
The Europeans have promised to guarantee that Iran benefits from abiding by the deal, even though Trump reimposed sanctions. In practice, European companies largely abandoned plans to reinvest in Iran after Trump’s decision.
Britain, France and Germany are co-signatories of the deal along with Russia and China.
A new EU mechanism has been put in place to facilitate trade with Iran without using U.S. dollars, drawing a sharp rebuke from Washington. In practice, EU diplomats say it is likely to be used only for trade permitted by Washington anyway, such as for food or humanitarian supplies.
Iran has called on the EU to do more to demonstrate its commitment to the deal.
"I am not telling the officials what to do, but I am advising them to exercise caution (in dealing with Europe), so that they will not be tricked by them and cause problems for the country,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.
Speaking on the anniversary of an uprising by the people of Tabriz on February 18, 1978, the Leader said the fact that millions of people celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution this month once again proved that the enemies cannot hurt the Iranian nation.
"Of course, the adversaries would deny that millions of people showed up but they do know and they do understand that as long as a nation holds its ground like this, enemies can do it no harm,” he said.
Millions of Iranians took to the streets last week to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, much to the dismay of U.S. leaders who had said the Islamic Republic would not survive to see the event.
The Leader said as long as the nation stays true to its values and defends them as it did last week, it will prevail with God’s assistance.
Referring to the recent deadly attack by a Pakistani-based terror group against the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) forces in southeastern Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei said "such incidents must make us aware of the price that is paid for our security.”
"Let’s not forget how security is established,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, adding "May God bless the Islamic Revolution Guards and all of the people who protect the security, and the police and others.”
Drawing attention to the many problems that the U.S. is dealing with both inside and outside of its borders, the Leader said while "no enemy is to be underestimated,” the reality is that Washington is "weak” today.
"You can see today that our main enemy, the U.S., is struggling,” he asserted. "It is struggling with internal issues and it is struggling with external issues and it is also tussling with leaders of the countries” that it has conflicts of interest with.
"Yet these stupid officials or first-class idiots get angry and labor themselves to death, holding the Warsaw summit which gets nowhere; they invite their weak and wavering governments to plot against Iran but they get nowhere.”
Ayatollah Khamenei was referring to the recent anti-Iran meeting in the Polish capital which failed to produce any results despite Washington’s high hopes.
"These are tell-tale signs of the enemy’s weakness. When the enemy is weak, it blows hot air,” the Leader said. "This hot air should not cause any worries among our officials.”
During a conference on the Middle East organized by the United States in Warsaw last week, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence urged Persian Gulf Arab states to cooperate with the occupying regime of Israel to confront Iran.
 "America invites weak and frightened puppets to conspire against Iran in Warsaw but to no avail,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.