Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday that Europe “cannot be trusted”, a week after the EU launched a trade mechanism to bypass US sanctions on Tehran.

“These days there’s talk of the Europeans and their proposals. My advice is that they shouldn’t be trusted, just like the Americans,” he said at a meeting with air force officials, his website reported.

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t have relations with them.

 This is about trust,” he added. Britain, France and Germany last week launched a special payment mechanism called INSTEX to help save the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.