Iran’s Supreme Leader said on Thursday January 9: “One of the blessings of the recent negotiations is that they clearly revealed the enmity of the United States with Iran and Islam for everyone to see.” And he urged the Iranian government to concentrate more on “internal power” for resolving the country’s problems.
He stressed that Iran’s presence at the negotiation table with the world powers has no connection with the sanctions. “We have said before we would negotiate with this Satan on specific topics that we consider appropriate, in order to rid ourselves of its evil.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader appears to have given full authority to the Rohani administration to resolve the nuclear negotiations with the world powers.
He has, however, been quoted as saying that while he is not against negotiations, he is not very optimistic about the outcome.
Iran-U.S. relations have increased considerably since the Rohani administration took power last summer. The Iranian president held a telephone conversation with the U.S. president in September, and foreign ministers of the two countries have participated in direct nuclear talks during several rounds of negotiations.
The negotiations reached a breakthrough in November with a preliminary agreement to pause sanctions on Iran and for Iran to halt expansion of its nuclear program and allow greater inspection of its nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The U.S. Congress has not been fully supportive of the deal and some U.S. Senators insist on forging ahead with increased sanctions on Iran.
