 |
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday that the United States has ill intentions toward Iran and is not to be trusted. |
Iran supreme leader warns against negotiating with US
Engagement would be naive, perverted, he says
TEHRAN - Iran’s supreme leader, spurning what he described as several personal overtures from President Obama, warned yesterday that negotiating with United States was “naive and perverted’’ and said Iranian politicians should not be “deceived’’ into starting such talks.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Obama has approached him several times through oral and written messages. It was the second time that Khamenei, 70, who wields ultimate political and religious authority in Iran, has referred to Obama’s outreach, in which the US president reportedly has requested talks between the two estranged nations.
Khamenei previously has mentioned receiving two letters from Obama. The White House has not confirmed sending letters to the supreme leader but has acknowledged a willingness to talk to Iran and said it has sought to communicate with Iranian leaders in a variety of ways.
In his harshest comments against the Obama administration to date, Khamenei said yesterday that the United States has ill intentions toward Iran and is not to be trusted. The remarks came amid wrangling between Iranian officials and representatives of the United States, Russia, and France over a United Nations-backed proposal aimed at resolving a protracted dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.
Under the deal, Iran would ship much of its low-enriched uranium abroad for processing into fuel for a research reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes. The United States and its allies see the arrangement as a way to reduce a uranium stockpile that could otherwise be used to produce fissile material for a nuclear weapon, while meeting Iran’s professed need for medium-enriched nuclear fuel for the research reactor.
On Monday, Iran said it wanted further negotiations and more guarantees that its low-enriched uranium would be returned. During talks on the offer in Geneva on Oct. 1, Iranian officials had a rare meeting with US Undersecretary of State William J. Burns and tentatively agreed to the arrangement.
“The new US president has said nice things,’’ Khamenei said in a speech yesterday. “He has given us many spoken and written messages and said, ‘Let’s turn the page and create a new situation. Let’s cooperate with each other in resolving world problems.’ ’’
Khamenei made the remarks to an audience during a commemoration of the Nov. 4, 1979, takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran, which will be celebrated widely in Iran today.
Iran’s highest leader said he responded in March to Obama’s overtures, saying in a speech that he would wait for changes in American policy toward Iran.
Since then, Khamenei said, “What we have witnessed is completely the opposite of what they have been saying and claiming. On the face of things they say: ‘Let’s negotiate.’ But alongside this they threaten us and say that if these negotiations do not reach a desirable result, they will do this and that.’’
Khamenei urged Iranian representatives to be extremely careful when dealing with the United States.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
