Ayatollah Khamenei Rules Out US Talks

In remarks at the beginning of a religious course on Tuesday morning, Ayatollah Khamenei dismissed the US’ new call for talks with Iran as trickery.

“One time they (the US) propose negotiations without preconditions, and one time they say negotiations (should come) with 12 conditions. Such remarks either result from their disorganized policy, or work as a trick for confusing the other side. However, the Islamic Republic would not get confused, because our path is clear and we know what we are doing,” the Leader said.

The US objective behind negotiations is not finding a fair solution, but to impose its rude demands, Ayatollah Khamenei warned, saying the American authorities have become so rude that they openly admit to pursuing the purpose of “imposition” behind the push for talks.

Ayatollah Khamenei deplored the recent comments by a US official who said Iran must approve a series of US demands at the negotiating table, recommending that the Americans should exercise such a method of talks with certain states that act as a cow being milked by Washington.  

“The US administration’s policy is maximum pressure on Iran in the form of various sanctions, threats and a load of nonsense, because the current US administration believes that it cannot bring the Islamic Republic to its knees or force it to show humility and acceptance with formality and compliment,” the Leader warned.

“The US regime seeks to set it as a definite policy for both its internal rivals and for the Europeans that the only way to deal with Iran would be maximum pressure,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, adding that Washington is looking for a way to allege that the policy of maximum pressure is effective and the Iranian officials have to go to the negotiating table.

Warning that the enemy’s success to prove the efficacy of policy of maximum pressure on Iran will encourage the US regime to employ such a tactic for bullying Iran in all other cases, the Leader said the Europeans are also trying to persuade Iran to hold a meeting with the US president in order to prove the policy of maximum pressure successful.

“In turn, we must prove that the policy of maximum pressure is worth nothing for the Iranian nation,” Ayatollah Khamenei underscored.

The Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, have reiterated with a united voice that Iran will not hold talks with the US, either bilaterally or multilaterally, the Leader emphasized.

“If the US backs off from its call, repents, and returns to the nuclear treaty it has breached, then it will be able to join the gathering of the parties to the deal (JCPOA) who hold meetings and talk with Iran, otherwise no negotiations will take place between the officials of the Islamic Republic and the Americans at any level, not in New York and not anywhere else,” Ayatollah Khamenei concluded.

The Iranian president and foreign minister are going to attend an annual meeting of the UN general Assembly in New York later this month.