Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution of Iran Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei said Sunday that extending sanctions on Iran is like imposing new sanctions on the country, and that both concepts breach the latest nuclear deal.

“During nuclear negotiations, much has been said about the sanctions; however, the US congress would ignore all these negotiations to extend sanctions which have been no longer in place by the very fact that they had been cancelled; this is a manifestly deviating behavior and violation of the JCPOA; they would downplay the importance of the act, resorting to the pretext that these are not new sanctions, but extension of other sanctions,” Ayatollah Khamenei emphasized during his meeting with commanders of Army Navy on the anniversary of National Navy Day.

“Whatever the nature of sanctions or extensions, it is violation by the US, and as I told before, we will definitely prepare responses in return,” his eminence warned.

Grand Ayatollah also hailed advances in capabilities of the force in human resource management, command, and technical logistics support; his general recommendation was to avoid haste in handling affairs and perseverance in accomplishing of the missions; “defeating restrictions is key to success in any project; today, the world navies have seen a pinnacle in navigation of distant seas to strengthen their national glory, to which our Navy should also contribute,” Imam Khamenei told the meeting.

Source: Iranian Agencies