No talks with the 'great Satan': Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Seyyed Ali Khamenei prays at the mausoleum of Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini,
founder of the Iranian Revolution.
Supreme Leader
Rejects 'Deceptive' Talks with Americans (Kayhan,
Islamic Republic of Iran)
"Is the recent proposal from the Obama Administration for direct talks with Iran just an empty gesture to make Washington look reasonable, and Iran appear truculant? According to this news account from Iran's state-run Kayhan, Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has told officers of his nation's armed forces that Iran will not negotiate with America while the U.S. 'holds a gun to Iran's head.'"
TEHRAN: The leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, has rejected
any talks with the United States called for under pressure and threats.
"I am not a diplomat. I am a revolutionary, and I speak
frankly, honestly, and firmly. An offer of talks makes sense only when the side
making the offer shows its goodwill," Ayatollah Khamenei
said during a meeting with naval officials and commanders on Thursday.
"Negotiation is meaningful only when the two sides talk
with goodwill, with equality and without seeking to deceive one another.
Therefore, 'negotiation for the sake of negotiation,' 'tactical negotiation,'
and negotiation simply to sell a superpower's gesture to the world, is deception,"
the leader stated.
Ayatollah Khamenei also noted that
during the past four years, nothing but continuing conspiracies, the abetting of
seditionists and the support of terrorists who have assassinated Iranian scientists
has been seen from the United States.
"You (Americans) point a gun at Iran and say either
negotiate or we will pull the trigger! You should know that pressure and
negotiations don't go together, and the [Iranian] nation will not be
intimidated by such tactics."
Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to remarks
by American officials that "the ball is now in Iran's court," noting,
"The ball is in your court, because you should answer the question of
whether speaking of talks while continuing pressure and threats makes any sense."
The leader pointed out, however, that, "We of course
understand their need for negotiations, because America's Middle East policy has
failed, and in order to compensate for this failure, they need a trump card.
... Bringing Iran to the negotiating table is the trump card the U.S. needs,"
Ayatollah Khamenei noted, adding that it is seeking
to show the world that it has good will. But no one sees any goodwill. Talks
with the United States solves nothing because they have failed to fulfill a
single one of their promises in 60 years."
Posted By
Worldmeets.US
Referring to the conspiracies carried out by Iran's enemies,
including coups, military provocations, all-out support for aggressor enemies,
hard war, soft war, intense
pressure by the evil media empire of the West as well as harsh and increasing
sanctions, Ayatollah Khamenei pointed out that for
the past 30 years, the enemies have sought to create disappointment with the
Islamic Republic among the Iranian nation, but that they have utterly failed.
The leader stressed that the Iranian nation would castigate
anyone who renounces the national interest, sovereignty and progress of the
country to satisfy the United States.
Speaking at the 49th annual Munich Security Conference in
Germany on February 2, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Washington was ready
to hold direct talks with Iran over the country's nuclear energy program.
The United States, the Israeli regime, and some of their
allies, have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives with
its nuclear energy program.
Iran argues that as a signatory to the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency,
it is entitled to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
