US maximum pressure fails to achieve goals, says Khamenei

The US "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran is a broken-down policy and has failed to achieve its goals, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday.

"The Americans illusioned that they will bring Iran to its knees by focusing on maximum pressure, particularly through economic sanctions," Khamenei said, adding that "however, they themselves faced problems and troubles", Xinhua reported citing the official IRNA news agency.

The Iranian leader said that in the recent UN General Assembly, "the Americans could not, even with the help of their European friends, force the Iranian president to meet his US counterpart".

"Up to this hour, their pressures have failed, and I announce determinedly that they (the Americans) will not succeed in the maximum pressure" campaign against Iran, he stressed.

Following the US unilateral exit from the Iranian 2015 landmark nuclear deal last year and subsequent sanctions on the Islamic republic, tensions have escalated between Iran, on the one side, and the US and its regional allies, on the other.