Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says a call by US President Donald Trump for negotiations with Iran is nothing but an attempt to "deceive the world public opinion" and portray the Islamic Republic as the party not willing to give diplomacy another chance, Press TV reported.
“We sat down for years and negotiated. This same person threw off the table and tore apart the concluded, finalized, and signed negotiations,” Khamenei said during an address to a gathering of students in Tehran on Wednesday.
He said, “When we know he doesn’t honor [agreements], what is the point of negotiating? Therefore, calls for negotiation and talks of negotiation are meant to deceive the global public opinion.”
Khamenei said the Trump administration does not intend to remove the sanctions, and that negotiations will only worsen the pressure campaign as Washington will raise new demands.
“If the purpose of negotiations is to lift the sanctions, negotiating with this US administration will not remove the sanctions. It will make the sanctions even tighter and increase the pressure,” the Leader said.
Responding to Western allegations that Tehran seeks nuclear weapons, Khamenei reiterated that Iran does not want to build nuclear arms, adding that it could have done so by now if it had so chosen.
“It is said that ‘We won’t let Iran obtain nuclear weapons.’ Had we wanted to build nuclear weapons, America could not have stopped us. The fact that we don’t have nuclear weapons and are not pursuing them is because we ourselves don’t want them for specific reasons.”
Referring to US threats of military action against Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei warned that Iran is prepared to deliver a decisive response. The United States, he said, would suffer more in such a confrontation.
“In my view, this threat is irrational because war or military aggression is not a one-sided affair. Iran has the capability to retaliate, and it will certainly deliver a counterstrike if necessary,” he said.
“I even believe that if the Americans or their agents make a wrong move, they will suffer more damage than anyone else.”
On the sanctions, Khamenei said such measures are losing their effectiveness gradually as Iran has found ways to neutralize them.
“Over time, when sanctions persist globally, they gradually lose their impact. Even they (US officials) themselves admit this. They acknowledge that a sanctioned country can gradually find ways to neutralize sanctions and render them ineffective. We have discovered many such ways and have neutralized sanctions in many areas,” he continued.
Khamenei, however, said that most of Iran’s economic challenges stem from internal negligence and mismanagement rather than external sanctions.
He also addressed the martyrdom of prominent resistance leaders in Lebanon, Palestine, and Iran over the past year, including Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
While acknowledging the losses felt by the Resistance Front, the Leader emphasized that these setbacks do not signify weakness or decline.
bd-pratidin/GR
