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Iran Criticizes US, Trump 02/07 06:46
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Iran's supreme leader said Friday that
negotiations with America "are not intelligent, wise or honorable" after
President Donald Trump floated nuclear talks with Tehran.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also suggested that "there should be no negotiations
with such a government," but stopped short of issuing a direct order not to
engage with Washington.
Khamenei's remarks upend months of signals from Tehran to the United States
that it wanted to negotiate over its rapidly advancing nuclear program in
exchange for the lifting of crushing economic sanctions worth billions of
dollars.
What happens next remains unclear, particularly as reformist President
Masoud Pezeshkian promised as recently as Thursday to enter into a dialogue
with the West.
Khamenei's remarks to air force officers in Tehran appeared to contradict
his own earlier remarks in August that opened the door to talks. However, the
85-year-old Khamenei has always been careful with remarks about negotiating
with the West. That includes balancing the demands of reformists within the
country who want the talks against hard-line elements within Iran's theocracy,
including the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Khamenei noted that Trump unilaterally withdrew from the earlier nuclear
deal under which Iran drastically limited its enrichment of uranium and overall
stockpile of the material, in exchange for crushing sanctions being removed.
"The Americans did not uphold their end of the deal," Khamenei said. "The
very person who is in office today tore up the agreement. He said he would, and
he did."
He added: "This is an experience we must learn from. We negotiated, we gave
concessions, we compromised -- but we did not achieve the results we aimed for.
And despite all its flaws, the other side ultimately violated and destroyed the
agreement."
Mixed messages from Trump
It's not clear what sparked Khamenei's remarks. However, they come after
Trump suggested he wanted to deal with Tehran, even while signing an executive
order to reimpose his "maximum pressure" approach to Iran on Tuesday.
"I'm going to sign it, but hopefully we're not going to have to use it very
much," he said from the Oval Office. "We will see whether or not we can arrange
or work out a deal with Iran."
"We don't want to be tough on Iran. We don't want to be tough on anybody,"
Trump added. "But they just can't have a nuclear bomb."
Trump followed with another online message on Wednesday, saying: "Reports
that the United States, working in conjunction with Israel, is going to blow
Iran into smithereens, ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED."
"I would much prefer a Verified Nuclear Peace Agreement, which will let Iran
peacefully grow and prosper," he wrote on Truth Social. "We should start
working on it immediately, and have a big Middle East Celebration when it is
signed and completed." He did not elaborate.
Nuclear enrichment
Khamenei, like other Iranian leaders, uses elliptical comments to indirectly
govern policy while not boxing himself into any one decision. As supreme
leader, he's also created a vast bureaucracy that competes with itself for
influence, including with its civilian leadership under Pezeshkian.
As recently as Thursday, Pezeshkian suggested Iran could open itself up to
even more inspections from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the
International Atomic Energy Agency.
"They (can) come and inspect one hundred times more since we are not
supposed to go after" a nuclear weapon, Pezeshkian told foreign diplomats.
Iranian diplomats have long pointed to Khamenei's preachings as a binding
fatwa, or religious edict, that Iran won't build an atomic bomb.
Iran has long insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
However, it now enriches uranium to 60% purity --- a short, technical step from
weapons-grade levels of 90%. Iranian officials increasingly suggest Tehran
could pursue an atomic bomb. U.S. intelligence agencies assess that Iran has
yet to begin a weapons program, but has "undertaken activities that better
position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so."
U.S. sanctions on oil trading firms 'unjustified'
Earlier in the week, Trump also said that displaced Palestinians in Gaza
could be permanently resettled outside the war-torn territory and proposed the
U.S. take "ownership" in redeveloping the area into "the Riviera of the Middle
East."
Khamenei appeared to reference Trump's Gaza proposal in his remarks.
"The Americans sit, redrawing the map of the world -- but only on paper, as
it has no basis in reality," Khamenei said. "They make statements about us,
express opinions and issue threats. If they threaten us, we will threaten them
in return. If they act on their threats, we will act on ours. If they violate
the security of our nation, we will, without a doubt, respond in kind."
Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Ministry separately criticized the U.S. Treasury's
move to levy sanctions Thursday against firms trading sanctioned Iranian crude
oil to China. The Treasury described the firms as forming an "international
network for facilitating the shipment of millions of barrels of Iranian crude
oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars."
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei called the Treasury's
decision "completely unjustified and contrary to international rules and
regulations."
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