Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Tuesday ruled out talks with United States, saying President Donald Trump's demand Tehran end domestic enrichment of uranium was an insult which had earned him a "slap in the face" from the Iranian people.
Below are excerpts from Khamenei's televised speech:
"In the current situation, negotiating with the US government would, first and foremost, do nothing to help our national interests — it would bring us no benefit and would not avert any harm."
"Negotiations with the US under present conditions also entail serious harms for the country, some of which may even be irreparable."
"When we say it is not to our benefit, it is because the American side has already predetermined the outcome of negotiations. They have declared that the only talks they accept are those that end with Iran shutting down its nuclear activities and enrichment."
"That is not negotiation; that is dictation, it is imposition. To sit down and negotiate with a party that insists the result must necessarily be exactly what they want and say—is that negotiation?"
"They say: let us negotiate, and the result should be that Iran has no enrichment. And just days ago, one of their deputies declared that Iran must not have missiles either—not long-range, not medium-range, not even short-range. They are saying Iran must be left empty-handed, unable even to respond, if attacked, at an American base in Iraq or elsewhere."
"Such words are bigger than the mouth that utters them and are not worthy of attention. We have not and will not give in to pressure in enrichment or in any other matter."
Uranium enrichment
"Now this man, the American side, is insisting that Iran must have no enrichment at all. In the past, others said we should not have high-level enrichment, or that our enriched material should not be kept inside the country—things we did not accept. But now they are saying: no enrichment whatsoever, absolutely none at all. What does that mean?"
"Well, clearly, a proud nation like the Iranian people will slap the mouth of the one who says this and will not accept it. We will not submit to pressure in this matter (uranium enrichment) or in any other."
"The other side has threatened that if you do not negotiate, such and such will happen—whether it be bombing or other threats, sometimes vague, sometimes explicit. That is a threat. Accepting such negotiations would signal that Iran is vulnerable to threats. It would mean that whenever we face a threat, we immediately become afraid, tremble, and submit. That is what it would mean."
"And if such susceptibility to threats were to emerge, it would never end. Today they say: if you enrich, we will do this. Tomorrow they will say: if you have missiles, we will do that. Then they will say: if you maintain ties with such-and-such a country, we will act; if you do not maintain ties with another, we will act. It will all be threats, and we would be forced to retreat at every step."
"No honorable nation accepts negotiations under threat, and no wise politician endorses it."
"Ten years ago, we signed an agreement with the Americans, under which they were supposed to lift sanctions and normalize Iran’s nuclear file at the IAEA. The other side may now say, 'in exchange, we will give you such-and-such a concession.' They are lying. Whatever they claim to offer as a concession is false."
