Imam Khamenei:”The US animosity toward Iranians and the Islamic Republic is not at all about the nuclear issue”

The US animosity toward Iranians and the Islamic Republic is not at all about the nuclear issue. It is wrong to think that U.S. hostility toward us is based on the nuclear issue. This is not the case. The nuclear issue is an excuse. Since the Revolution and even long before the nuclear issue was brought up, these hostilities had existed. Even if one day the nuclear issue is resolved – suppose that the Islamic Republic conceded, which is the thing they want – do not think that these hostilities will be over; No, they would gradually make tens of other excuses. U.S. sanctions enacted after the Revolution and have been increasing on a daily basis. They showed other forms of hostility as well: They downed an Islamic Republic’s plane and killed 290 innocent people. Early after the Revolution, they launched the Nojeh coup. They supported anti-Revolutionaries in different corners of the country. They provided weapons and other such things for the anti-Revolutionary camp; the same things they did in other countries later on. Their enmity is not based on the nuclear issue; it is about the very Iranian nation who said no to U.S. desires. They are opposed to the identity and power of the Islamic Republic.

The Leader of Islamic Ummah and Oppresed Imam Sayyed Khamenei in a meeting with students, November 3, 2013