Iran's Supreme Leader Throws Cold Water on Nuclear Negotiations

By Edward Yeranian

Cairo
03 November 2009

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says that Tehran "does not want negotiations with the West if the "results are pre-determined by the United States." The Ayatollah's remarks follow the government's observance of the 30th anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.  

The crowd chanted "death to America" as Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the group of young people that Tehran "does not want negotiations" with the United States, if the terms of any deal amount to a U.S. diktat.

He says that the United States and its allies tell us to our faces that they are seeking negotiations, but then, when they do not get what they want, they make threats. Is this, he asks, what they call negotiations?

The message came amid an ongoing flurry of contradictory signals by top Iranian officials over Tehran's position on a draft U.N. nuclear accord that would require sending 80 percent of its low-grade uranium abroad for enrichment.

The Ayatollah devoted long portions of his speech to castigating the United States, at a gathering that was billed as a "condemnation of arrogant powers." He went on to defend what he called Tehran's "legitimate rights."

He says what Iran wants is nothing more than its legitimate right. Iran, he argues, seeks its independence, freedom, national interests, along with scientific and technological progress. He warns that Iran will confront any opponent that challenges those rights with all its might, and bring them down to their knees.

Ayatollah Khamenei's threat to bring Iran's opponents to their knees appeared to be an allusion to the 1979 take-over of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, at the start of the Iranian Revolution. Iran will celebrate the 30th anniversary of that take-over, Wednesday.