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 Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told hundreds of workers that a global
deal, signed between Iran and world powers, had lifted financial
sanctions, but U.S. obstruction was stopping Iran getting the full
economic fruits of the agreement.
"On paper the United States allows foreign banks to deal with Iran,
but in practice they create Iranophobia so no one does business with
Iran," he said in quotes from the speech posted on his website.
Iran has repeatedly urged Washington to do more to remove obstacles
to the banking sector, in the spirit of the July deal with the
United States, the European Union, Russia and China to lift most
sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.
 But some U.S. sanctions remain, and U.S. banks remain prohibited
from doing business with Iran directly or indirectly because
Washington still accuses Tehran of supporting terrorism and human
rights abuses.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told the Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif in New York on Saturday that Washington was not
trying to stop Iran dealing with banks outside the United States.
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"There are now opportunities for foreign banks to do business with
Iran ... Unfortunately there seems to be some confusion among some
foreign banks and we want to try and clarify that," Kerry said.
(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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