Iran will support the people of Afghanistan and its relations with the Afghan government will depend on Kabul's approach to Tehran, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday. 

"We support the people of Afghanistan. Governments come and go. What remains is the Afghan nation," Khamenei said in a meeting in Tehran with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who sworn in earlier this month, and his cabinet, semi-official news agency Tasnim reported. 

Afghanistan is Iran's "brother country," said Khamenei, criticizing the United States as "the source of Afghanistan's plights." 

Iran's foreign ministry earlier in the week called for formation of a comprehensive government in Afghanistan, and its spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Iran encourages all parties in Afghanistan to reduce their differences and calls on all sides to pursue dialogue and exercise restraint.

Read more:

Iran: U.S. 'failure' in Afghanistan a chance for durable peace

After Afghanistan, now Biden's Iran policy headed for doom

Khamenei also said the current U.S. administration under President Joe Biden is not different "at all" from the previous Trump administration. 

Regarding Iran's nuclear program, he added, the United States acted "extremely shameless," withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear agreement and then "talking as if it was Iran who had withdrawn from it." 

The new Iranian government's diplomacy, Khamenei said, should not be impacted by the nuclear issue, and Iran's foreign trade with neighboring countries and "other nations" should be bolstered. 

Biden said in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Friday that the U.S. was committed "to ensur[ing] Iran never develops a nuclear weapon," adding that Washington would be "putting diplomacy first" and was "ready to turn to other options."

(With input from Xinhua)

(Cover: File photo of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a televised address in Tehran, Iran, March 21, 2021. /CFP)