Basij Commander Dismisses Negotiations with US as “Meaningless”

Commander of Iran’s Basij (volunteer) Force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi on Sunday rejected Tehran’s direct talks with the US as “meaningless”, saying Washington is today at the climax of hostility towards Iran.

“Speaking about negotiations between Iran and the US is meaningless,” Gen. Naqdi told an audience of academicians at Sharif University of Industry in Tehran on Sunday.

“As long as the US refuses to give up support for the Zionist regime and avoids leaving the Persian Gulf, relations with the US will not be resumed,” he said.

He also reminded Washington’s increased hostilities towards Iran in recent years, and said, “The US today is at the peak of its enmity towards Iran.”

Washington officials last month extended an offer of direct talks with Tehran. US Vice-President Joe Biden, speaking at this year’s Munich Security Conference, reiterated previous indications that the US was prepared to talk one-on-one with Iran.

In response, The Leader of Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Imam Seyed Ali Khamenei dismissed the US offer, saying that the proposal has been made in word, while Washington’s actions show a different course, meaning that the offer is nothing but a cunning move.

Addressing a gathering of Iranian Air Force commanders and personnel here in Tehran early in February, The Leader of Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Imam Seyed Ali Khamenei rejected the US statesmen’s remarks that the ball is now in Iran’s court, and said, “The ball is in your court because you should answer and say if speaking of negotiations concurrent with pressures and threats basically bears any meaning.”

“Negotiation is meant to prove the goodwill. But you make tens of (hostile) actions with ill intention and then speak of negotiations in words. Can the Iranian nation believe that you are driven by goodwill,” the Supreme Leader continued.

The Leader of Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Imam Seyed Ali Khamenei further stated that the US needs talks with Iran because Washington’s Middle-East policy has proved as a failure and Americans need to show a winning ace to repair their damaged reputation.”

“Bringing the revolutionary and popular Islamic Republic to the negotiating table is the American’s winning ace as they want to tell the world that they have goodwill; but no one sees any goodwill (in the Americans),”The Leader of Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Imam Seyed Ali Khamenei said.

The Leader of Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Imam Seyed Ali Khamenei reminded his response to the US president’s previous offer of talks four years ago, and said, “Right then it was emphasized (by me) that we didn’t look at the offer with bias and prejudgment and would wait to see their action, but in these four years nothing has been observed (of the US) but continued plots, aid and assistance to seditionists and conspirators and support for the terrorists who assassinated the Iranian nation’s scientists.”

The Leader of Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Imam Seyed Ali Khamenei further underlined the contradictory remarks and actions of the White House rulers, and said, “You impose – in your own words – crippling sanctions to paralyze the (Iranian) nation, does this show good or ill intention?”

“Negotiation is meaningful when the two sides talk with goodwill, on equal footings and without an intention to deceit (the other side) and that’s why ‘negotiation for negotiation’, ‘negotiation in the form of a tactic’, and offer of negotiation to pose as a world superpower is a deceitful move,” the Supreme Leader reiterated.

“You aim the gun at the Iranian nation and then say ‘negotiate or I shoot’! But you should know that pressure and negotiation are not compatible and the (Iranian) nation will not be intimidated by these things,”The Leader of Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Imam Seyed Ali Khamenei said.

The Leader of Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Imam Seyed Ali Khamenei further pointed to a number of cases in recent history in which Iran has shown trust and accepted to start talks with the US, and lamented that the US has always proved to be disloyal to its undertakings in such cases.

The United States and Iran broke diplomatic relations in April 1980, after Iranian students seized the United States’ espionage center at its embassy in Tehran. The two countries have had tense relations ever since, but have shown willingness to attend talks to help resolve regional issues, including security in Iraq. Yet, the two countries have avoided talks on bilateral issues for the last thirty years.