Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has once again called on the United States to "lift all sanctions on Iran" before the process of returning to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (JCPOA) can start.

According to Iranian state TV, Khamenei made it clear that Tehran's "final and irreversible" decision was to return to compliance with the deal only if Washington lifts sanctions in a verifiable way on the Islamic Republic.

He said that Iran must verify whether the US has fulfilled its commitment. "The side with the right to set conditions to JCPOA is Iran since it abided by all its commitments, not the US or the three European countries who breached theirs. If they want Iran to return, the US must lift all sanctions. We'll verify and if it's done properly, we’ll return to our commitments," Khamenei said during a meeting with a group of Iranian army's air force officers on Sunday, February 7.

Earlier, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had said on January 29 that Iran will not accept US demands to reverse an acceleration of its nuclear program before Washington lifts sanctions, adding that the demand "is not practical and will not happen” at a joint news conference in Istanbul with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Also on February 1, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh had said that Tehran was awaiting “an effective end to all sanctions imposed after Trump came to power” as a sign Washington is serious over returning to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Just before the weekend, Zarif signalled that there was no consensus among Iran's leaders on talks with the United States, but once the US re-joins JCPOA, talks would be possible within its framework.

President Hassan Rouhani and other top officials have said on various occasions that Iran would return to the 2015 nuclear deal immediately if the United States does so. However, it has been clear at least since 2014 during the talks that led to the JCPOA agreement that it is Khamenei who has the final say about the nuclear agreement and Iran's foreign policy in general.

Iran has reduced its commitments under the JCPOA gradually since 2019, one year after former US President Donald Trump left the agreement reached in 2015 between the United States, Russia, China, UK, France and Germany after two years of negotiations.

Subsequently, the Trump administration launched a policy of ‘maximum pressure’ against Iran which included, among other things, a paralyzing ban on Iran's oil exports and international banking, creating major economic problems for the country.

In January, President Joe Biden and his team said they were prepared to return to the deal Trump left only if Tehran returns to full compliance with the JCPOA.

Elsewhere in his speech on Sunday, Khamenei continued his usual anti-American rhetoric saying that he knew the United States very well, "Their recent events were a fiasco. Trump’s fall wasn't just the fall of an unfit president. It was the decline of US power and social order. Speaking of US decline from within and the start of a post-US era are the words of US experts, not ours."

He also continued Iranian officials' derogatory statements about Trump and his administration by referring to a statement made by Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton: "One of the first-rate fools in the Trump administration had said they would celebrate New Year 2019 in Tehran! He was thrown into history’s dustbin. His boss was also kicked into history’s trashcan, while the Islamic Republic is standing strong."

On the history of tensions between Iran and the United States, he said: "The US miscalculated in understanding the Iranian nation during the 1979 Revolution, and so they failed. During the 2009 sedition, the Democratic president backed the sedition. Trump failed in his maximum pressure policy too. They're still miscalculating."

Khamenei was referring to President Barack Obama when millions came out to protest in Iran against the fraudulent results of the presidential elections and dozens were killed. In fact, many Iranian accused Obama of not doing much to support their protest movement.