Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed hope on Sunday that his country would manage to improve its economy, overcoming some of its problems, during a speech marking the Persian New Year. “We hope that these economic problems will gradually go away this new year because they (these problems) will not disappear at once,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in his traditional television message on the occasion of Nowroz.

The country has been hit by severe economic sanctions imposed by the United States since 2018 following a unilateral withdrawal from the international Iranian nuclear deal and high inflation. The deal, concluded in 2015, allowed the lifting of international economic sanctions imposed on Tehran, in exchange for stricter limits set on its nuclear program.

“Of all the bitterness [de l’année dernière]I want to mention the problems of high prices, inflation and people’s livelihoods,” Khamenei said. “One of the most important events of last year was that the Americans suffered a humiliating defeat by exerting maximum pressure against Iran. ,” said Ayatollah Khamenei, a nod to the policy adopted by the former US government under Donald Trump.

Significant efforts have been underway in Vienna for nearly a year to salvage the 2015 accord, which was carried out by Iran on the one hand and the US, China, France, Britain, Russia and Germany on the other. In his message, the Iranian number one confirmed that the new year starting Monday will be one of “knowledge-based production and creating jobs”. The Iranian calendar runs from March to March, and the new year – called Nowruz – marks the transition from winter to spring.