(Adds quotes background)
ANKARA, April 9 (Reuters) - Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei on Thursday demanded that all sanctions on Iran be
lifted as soon as a final agreement with world powers on curbing
Tehran's nuclear programme was concluded.
In a live speech on Iranian state television, Khamenei said
he neither backed nor rejected an interim accord reached between
Iran and the powers last week. Its details would be decisive, he
said, making his first comment on the framework deal.
The publication of a U.S. fact sheet showing terms that were
at variance with the Iranian view of the agreement showed
"devilish" U.S. intentions, he said.
"I neither support nor oppose it," he said. "Everything is
in the details; it may be that the deceptive other side wants to
restrict us in the details."
"The White House put out a statement just a few hours after
our negotiators finished their talks...this statement, which
they called a 'fact sheet', was wrong on most of the issues."
The tentative accord, struck on April 2 after eight days of
talks in Switzerland, clears the way for a settlement to allay
Western fears that Iran could build an atomic bomb, with
economic sanctions on Tehran being lifted in return.
Khameni reiterated Iranian denials that Tehran was seeking
to build a nuclear weapon.
He added: "What has been achieved so far does not guarantee
a deal or even that the negotiations will continue to the end."
"I was never optimistic about negotiating with America...
nonetheless I agreed to the negotiations and supported, and
still support, the negotiatiors."
He said he supported a deal that preserved the "interests
and honour" of Iran and that an extension of a June 30 deadline
should not matter.
(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi, additional reporting by Sam Wilkin
in Dubai, Writing by William Maclean, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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