‘Deal of the Century’ Will Never Be Realized: Leader Ayatollah Khamenei

Addressing a group of university professors, academic elites, and researchers on Wednesday afternoon, Ayatollah Khamenei highlighted the significance of this year’s Quds Day rallies in the light of the escalated pressures by the Zionist regime of Israel against Palestine, and said, “This year’s Quds Day is more important than any other year. Of course, the issue of Palestine is a fundamental issue and it is not particular to Islamic governments and nations. The issue of Palestine is a humanitarian issue. Certainly, it is of more significance and of higher priority for Muslims as besides humanitarian aspects, it also includes religious concerns.”

He further described Quds Day rallies as particularly important this year because of acts of treasons by certain states in the region and said, “The Quds Day rally which represents supporting Palestine by public turnout has always been important. It is more important this year because of the treasonous acts by US cohorts in the region who try to make the ‘Deal of the Century’ accepted. Of course, it will not be accepted and it will never be realized; the United States and its cohorts will certainly face failure on this matter.”

The Leader once again reassured his audience that the Zionist plot is doomed to failure and said, “They are acting differently as compared to the past only in that now they openly declare they want to wipe the issue of Palestine form the issues of the world. For sure, they will not be able to do so and they will face a failure”.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ayatollah Khamenei referred to escalating pressures from the US to bring Iran back to the table of negotiations and stressed, “We will not negotiate with US officials because there is no point in negotiating and it is detrimental.”

The Leader said Iran welcomes negotiating with any other governments. “… we have no problems negotiating with others or with Europeans. In negotiating with others and with Europeans, our only concern is the issue to be negotiated.”

Ayatollah Khamenei emphasized that the Islamic Republic will never trade its core values, and said, “We will not negotiate on the core issues of the Revolution. Negotiations on these issues imply trading; that is, they mean we give up on our defensive capabilities. We will not negotiate our military capability.”

The Leader described negotiations as a pretext the United States uses to pressure Iran and said, “The US’s tactic is to ratchet up its strategy of pressuring Iran. They want to cash in on the pressures through negotiation.”

He added, “The US targets assets of a country by pressuring it; to further their goal, they employ pressure as a means. They also have a tactic and that is negotiation.”

Ayatollah Khamenei elaborated on how the United States pressures nations into negotiating and trading their national assets, saying, “They pressure until the adversary gets tired, and then propose to negotiate. This negotiation is complementary to the pressure and aims to cash in on the pressures. They pressure and then propose to negotiate. This is what negotiation means to them. Their strategy is not negotiation. It is pressure. Negotiation is part of the pressure strategy.”

The Leader regarded resistance as the countermeasure in face of pressures by the US and said, “The countermeasure for us is to use our own means of pressures to contend their pressure. However, if we are deceived by their call for negotiations and consider our means of pressures unnecessary, we would slip and that equals absolute defeat.”

Ayatollah Khamenei advised Iranian officials as well as the public against giving in to pressures, and said, “When you do not use your means of pressure, the enemy will relax and continue pressuring.”

The Leader described Iran’s national points of strength as including nuclear science, saying, “Our strength is in nuclear science and we are not after nuclear weapons either. Not because of the sanctions or the (pressures from) the United States, but because of our ideology that deems nuclear weapons forbidden from the point of view of Fiqh and religion.”

Ayatollah Khamenei slammed those who consider producing nuclear weapons as a method of deterrence and said, “Some have suggested producing but not using nuclear weapons. This is also wrong. We would spend a lot to produce them without using it and the enemy knows we would never use them. So they would be ineffective for us.”

Addressing the issue of the country’s National Security Council’s advice on where to hold enrichment levels, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “For now the ruling made by the Supreme National Security Council will be implemented and for later whatever necessary. Stopping at current levels is meaningless. As for now, the resolution by the Supreme National Security Council will be executed. If needed, we will use our next tactics in the future.”

He added, “The only way for us is to apply our tactics of pressure in face of the pressures that the US applies. Contrary to their propaganda, these tactics are not military–though we might use military means if we find it necessary.”

Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran would not abide by part of its JCPOA commitments as a step predicted within the framework of the deal and said, “What the Supreme National Security Council did by saying that we would not perform our commitments in this sector was appropriate.”

The Leader said, “There is a consensus among executive officials that negotiating with the United States is absolutely not advised. Not just negotiating with the current government; the Obama administration was not fundamentally different from the current government. It had a different appearance, but the same nature. We won’t be deceived by US tricks.”

Back on May 8, 2019, on the anniversary of the US’ withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran said that it will halt implementing some terms of the nuclear deal until parties to the deal other than US take action to mitigate the negative impacts of US decision in May 2018 to withdraw from the agreement.

The Islamic Republic says other parties to the JCPOA, particularly the E3 – France, Britain, and Germany – have failed so far to compensate for the US withdrawal and help Iran reap the economic dividends of the 2015 nuclear deal.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has set a two-month deadline for the parties to either do the necessary actions to save the JCPOA or face Iran resuming a nuclear enrichment program which had been suspended as part of the deal in return for lifting of international sanctions on Tehran.