US motive behind talks with Iran, disingenuous

An Iranian cleric says the US ulterior motive for proposing talks with Tehran is intimidating the revolutionaries of the world and establishing Washington’s hegemony.

“Some naïve people say a golden opportunity has been presented for negotiating with the US. The US is not after negotiations, it is after dominance,” Tehran Interim Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said.

“It (the US) wants Iran to sit at the negotiating table in order to tell the world’s revolutionaries: see we were able to drag Iran to the negotiating table,” he continued.

Speaking at the 49th annual Munich Security Conference in Germany on February 2, US Vice President Joe Biden said Washington was ready to hold direct talks with Iran over the country’s nuclear energy program.

Only four days later, the US government imposed new sanctions on Iran’s energy sector. The sanctions aim to prevent Iran from gaining access to crude export revenues.

Ayatollah Khatami also touched upon developments in the Middle East, saying Iran believes in the rule of the people, be it in the occupied Palestinian territories or Bahrain.

“In Syria likewise, every Syrian should have a vote. The US and the European Union have been exporting terrorists to Syria for two years; however, Syrian-Syrian talks are the only solution to the Syrian problem,” the cleric pointed out.

The Syria crisis began in March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of army and security personnel, have been killed.

Damascus says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.

The Syrian government says the West and its regional allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are supporting the armed groups.