Khamenei: Nuclear Talks Revealed US Enmity Toward Iran

Talks Are Necessary, But Ayatollah Wishes US Was More Cooperative

Speaking ahead of the next round of talks on the implementation of the P5+1 deal, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei defended the talks as necessary and expedient, but said they had also been an eye-opener.

“The nuclear talks showed the enmity of America against Iran and Iranians,” Khamenei said, reiterating the difficulty in coming to terms with the P5+1 while the US continued to have a chip on its shoulder.

The Ayatollah’s comments don’t appear to reflect any new revelations, but rather on the way minor procedural disputes have been blown up into huge issues, and the constant threats of the US Congress to derail the talks simply out of spite.

Iran, of course, has its hardliners too, and they’ve been just as eager to derail the talks as the hawks in the US Congress. They’ve so far been much less successful, however, and while there seems to be a majority in Congress in favor of killing the talks, Iran’s own hardliners have been largely kept in check by the reformist president’s dominance of the recent election.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.