(VOVworld) – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that the US only lifted sanctions on Iran on paper and, in practice, avoids doing business with Iran. He said US allows foreign banks to deal with Iran, but at the same time, creates an Iranophobia so one wants to do business with Tehran.

Iran’s Supreme Leader says US lifted sanctions only on paper. (Photo: EPA/VNA)

He said this prevents Iran from gaining the economic benefits of the July nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 Group (US, Britain, France, China, Russia, and Germany), in which Iran promised to curb its uranium enrichment activities in return for the removal of economic sanctions.

The US maintains some sanctions on Iran and US banks are still barred from doing business with Iran directly or indirectly, because Washington accuses Tehran of funding terrorism and abusing human rights. Tehran has repeatedly urged Washington to remove barriers from the banking sector in the spirit of the nuclear deal.