Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has announced that it is wrong to weaken the country’s nuclear negotiators by referring to them as accommodators; however, he stressed that he is not optimistic about negotiations with the United States.
The Iranian leader’s website reported on November 3 that Ayatollah Khamenei said during a speech in Tehran: “If the negotiations reach a resolution, it is much better, but if there is no outcome, then the country has to stand on its own legs.”
“As I said in Mashhad,” the Iranian leader continued; “I am not very optimistic about the negotiations; however, god willing, we will not be harmed by the negotiations, and such an experience will increase the mental capacities of our people.”
He added that no one should refer to Iran’s nuclear negotiators as “accommodators”, saying: “These are our children; the children of the Revolution. They have a very difficult mission and no one should in any way weaken an agent in the course of accomplishing his mission.”
President Hassan Rohani had announced earlier that he has complete authority over the nuclear negotiations with the 5+1 and that he is determined to reach a resolution within six months.
In recent weeks, a number of Iranian hardliners have criticized his decision to take a call from U.S. President Barack Obama when Rohani was in the United States in September for the UN General Assembly.
