Iran’s supreme leader said on Wednesday that his country’s hatred for the US runs deep and differences between the two nations go beyond a “few political issues.”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comments on state-run television less than a week before the US presidential elections were seen as a signal that a thaw in US-Iran relations was not expected no matter who wins Tuesday’s US election.
Khamenei said the hatred was rooted in 50 years of US intervention in Iran’s domestic affairs and hostility toward Tehran.
“The hatred of the Iranian nation is deep-seated. The reason is the various conspiracies by the US government against the Iranian people and government in the past 50 years,” Khamenei said.
He was addressing a group of students in Tehran days ahead of the 29th anniversary of the 1979 storming of the US Embassy in Tehran by militant students.
Iran blames the CIA for helping topple the elected government of Mohammad Mosaddeq in the 1950s and blames the US for openly supporting the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi against the 1979 Islamic revolution that led to the collapse of the dynasty.
Iranians also condemn Washington for arming and supporting then-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988.
“This dispute [with America] goes further than differences of opinion over a few political issues,” the leader said.
Iranian political analyst Saeed Leilaz said Khamenei’s address sent a clear message that he will have to approve any efforts for reconciliation with the US.
“Khamenei wants the US and Iranian political factions to know that he will be in control of any efforts to politically restore their relations,” Leilaz said.
Leilaz said that Khamenei was also telling Iran’s political factions not to get excited should Senator Barack Obama win the US presidential race.
Iran’s government has refused to publicly side with any of the US candidates, but Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani said last week that Obama seemed “more rational” than rival Senator John McCain.
Obama, a Democrat, has called for direct diplomacy with Iranian leaders that he says would give the US more credibility to press for tougher sanctions — though Obama now says he’s not sure hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the right person to meet with.
McCain, a Republican, has said he favors tougher sanctions against Iran and opposes direct high-level talks with Ahmadinejad.
The US and Iran have had no diplomatic relations since the 1979 embassy storming.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
RSS