Leader Ayatollah Khamenei calls for ban on negotiation with US

“This prohibition of negotiation has a strong logic: it will block the way of the enemy’s infiltration, display the Islamic Republic’s impressiveness to the world, and shatter America’s false aura before the world,” the Leader said Sunday in a meeting with university students.  

The meeting came ahead of the 40th anniversary of the US embassy takeover in Tehran by Iranian students who feared a plot was being hatched at the compound to overthrow the nascent Islamic Republic. 

Many of the sentiments which boiled in 1979 remain today amid escalating tensions between Tehran and Washington, following the US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and subsequent sanctions that have hit ordinary Iranians hard.

Ayatollah Khamenei touched on the history of the US enmity which began with the 1953 coup against Iran’s democratically-elected government, saying the Americans bore a grudge against Iran even when the two countries were allies.

“From the beginning of their relations with Iran, the Americans, with seemingly friendly plans, continued to feud with the Iranian nation. This enmity became public with the coup d’état on August 19, which is the beginning of America’s public hostility with Iran,” the Leader said. 

Since then, the Americans have not changed a bit, Ayatollah Khamenei added.

“The same wickedness, the same brutishness, the same compulsion to establish international dictatorship and the same endless urge for hegemony still exist in America today, albeit with more savagery and cruelty,” the Leader said.

Ayatollah Khamenei touched on some of the hostile US measures against Iran in the past 41 years since the Islamic Revolution, including an economic blockade and attempts to stir unrest and sectarian strife.   

“During this time, they did everything they could. They conspired against the institutions emanating from the revolution, especially the essence of the Islamic Republic, but of course we did everything we could and in many cases put the opponent on the ropes.”

Ayatollah Khamenei denounced the “arrogant and imperial habit” of the Americans, saying they think world leaders have to stoop for negotiation with the United States.

“For years, they have been pushing for talks with Iranian officials, but the Islamic Republic refuses them,” the Leader said.

“This is too hard for the enemies of the nation to swallow because it proves to the world that there is a state in the world that does not accept America’s occupying power and international dictatorship and does not brook bullying,” he added.