Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has defended Tehran’s negotiations with the US amid criticism that supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei did not sign off on the memorandum of understanding, according to Al Jazeera.

In remarks reported by the state news agency IRNA, Pezeshkian says that if Khamenei “had ordered not to negotiate, we would have definitely obeyed”.

The supreme leader’s view on the US-Iran MoU has been a topic of much domestic debate in Iran after he said he “held a different view” on the agreement.