Iran's Supreme Leader hits out at advocates of talks with Trump
Ali Khamenei rebuked proponents of renewed talks with the United States under President Donald Trump, warning of intractable American hostility.
Ali Khamenei rebuked proponents of renewed talks with the United States under President Donald Trump, warning of intractable American hostility.
Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday Iran’s refusal to engage with the US, despite maintaining ties with Europe, showed Washington's broader diplomatic failure.
"The United States has failed in Iran and is now seeking to compensate for this defeat," he said in a meeting with a group of his supporters from the city of Qom.
The comments come around two weeks before Donald Trump’s inauguration and the likely return of his so-called maximum pressure sanctions policy on Iran.
Trump has said Iran cannot be allowed to gain nuclear weapons but has also suggest Washington is not seeking to topple the Islamic Republic by force.
Some Iranian officials and political figures, including aides to President Masoud Pezeshkian, have called for talks with Trump to mitigate punishing US-led sanctions.
Referring to Iran before the establishment of the Islamic Republic, Khamenei said, "America had effectively taken control of this country, but we wrested it away. Their grudge against our nation and revolution is profound."
In contrast to government officials and many others advocating for negotiations, Hossein Shariatmadari, Khamenei’s representative at Kayhan newspaper, denounced such proposals in an editorial, saying advocates for US negotiations are either "asleep, drunk or insane."
But in an apparent endorsement of Pezeshkian - an embattled relative moderate - Khamenei commended his stance against the United States and Israel, while urging officialdom to focus solely on the Islamic Republic’s interests in their policymaking.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told China’s CCTV in an interview published earlier in January that Tehran is ready for constructive and prompt nuclear negotiations.
Khamenei stressed the importance of supporting Iran-backed groups across the region, despite heavy blows they have received at Israel's hands, saying, “resistance remains alive and must grow stronger by the day.”
"The enemy's soft war aims to distort reality and separate it from public understanding," he said, warning against the influence of hostile propaganda on the public mood, which has soured after a year of economic and foreign policy setbacks.
"While you grow stronger, they claim you are weakening."
French President Emmanuel Macron this week warned Tehran's nuclear program is nearing the point of no return.
Iran says its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful purposes but has accelerated activity since Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal - officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - during his first term and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.
"The Islamic Republic is fully prepared for all parties to return to the 2015 agreement and fulfill their mutual commitments," Pezeshkian said on Tuesday.
Last month, European powers France, Germany, and Britain warned that Iran’s actions had further eroded the agreement, noting that Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium has no credible civilian justification.
