Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that Tehran’s negotiations with the US were off to a good start but warned they might not go anywhere, stressing his lack of trust in the US.
According to Iran’s PressTV, Khamenei said the negotiations held in Oman over the weekend were “implemented well in their initial steps” but added that Tehran is “very skeptical” of the US side.
“The negotiations may or may not yield results. We are neither too optimistic nor too pessimistic about them. Of course, we are very skeptical of the other party, but confident in our own capabilities,” he said.
Khamenei said that Iran would continue to work to offset the impact of sanctions. “The removal of the sanctions is not in our hands, but neutralizing them is; there are many ways and [there is] great domestic capacity to do that. If this objective is achieved, the country will become impervious to sanctions,” he said.
While he offered a mixed reaction, Khamenei’s comments made clear that he supports the government of Masoud Pezeshkian to continue the negotiations, which were mostly held indirectly, although Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Steve Witkoff spoke to each other briefly.
Another round of negotiations is set to be held this Saturday. Some reports say they will be held in Rome, while Iran insists they will be held again in Oman.
President Trump has continued to threaten military action if a deal isn’t reached on Iran’s nuclear program even though US intelligence agencies recently said in their annual threat assessment that there’s no evidence that Tehran is building a nuclear bomb or that Khamenei has reversed his 2003 fatwah that banned the production of weapons of mass destruction.
