Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 13
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says that Iran is ready to cooperate with all countries excluding the United States and Israel.
Khamenei made the remarks while addressing the officials of foreign ministry, as well as Iranian ambassadors and diplomats abroad, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported on Aug. 13.
Khamenei went on to note that having relations with the US and negotiating with this country not only has no interests, but also has disadvantages except some certain cases.
"Some people inside Iran supposed that the country's problems will be resolved in the case of negotiating with the US, however the developments over the past year proved again that the idea was wrong," Khamenei stressed.
The Supreme Leader also said that he was already aware that negotiating with the US is not the solution.
"Earlier there was no connection between Iranian and the US officials, but over the past year the Islamic Republic decided to negotiate with the United State due to a sensitive nuclear case," Khamenei said, adding Iran did not benefit the negotiations.
"Americans' tone became more insulting and harsher after the negotiations started and they stated more arrogant expectations in meetings, as well as the public forums," he stressed.
"However Iranian officials responded their irrational demands strongly, but it finally was clear that negotiations do not help anything despite some people's imaginations," Khamenei added.
The US side did not eliminate its enmity and even imposed more new sanctions against Iran.
"They claim that the sanctions are not new and have been imposed earlier, but actually they imposed new sanctions," he argued.
Khamenei also underlined that he is not against continuing the nuclear negotiations.
"We will not ban nuclear talks and the process which started by foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his team will be followed," he said.
"However it was a valuable experience to all to understand that the negotiations with the US are useless," the Supreme Leader stressed.
Commenting on the risks of negotiating with the United States Khamenei said that this will damage Iran's figure.
"The world's public opinion would accuse us of uncertainty and the Western sides with their massive propaganda will claim that the Islamic Republic suffers from passivity," he explained.
Khamenei also noted that the issue of Iran's engagement with Israel is out of agenda.