TEHRAN —
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei said Saturday that negotiating with the US would not put an end to the
“troubles” that have rocked the Islamic republic over the past two months.
اضافة اعلان
Iran has seen weeks of demonstrations sparked by the
September 16 death in custody of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman
Mahsa Amini.
She had been arrested for an alleged breach of the country’s strict dress code
for women.
Government officials have blamed the “riots” on
“foreign enemies” in the West whom they accuse of inciting law-breaking.
“Some tell us in newspapers or on the internet that
to put an end to the troubles that started a few weeks ago, all that’s needed
is to resolve your problem with America and listen to the voice of the nation,”
Khamenei said.
“Negotiating will not resolve anything,” he said, in
comments broadcast on state television.
“Our problem with America can only be resolved by
letting that country hold us to ransom.”
Khamenei said that in order to put an end to
hostilities, the US wants Iran to abandon its nuclear program, change its
constitution, restrict its influence to inside its borders, and close its
defense industries.
“No Iranian can accept such conditions,” he said.
Khamenei also pointed to “the enormous voice of the
nation that rang out” earlier this month during pro-government demonstrations,
and for the funeral of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, whom the US
assassinated in a 2020 drone strike in Baghdad.
“This immense crowd was the voice of the Iranian
nation,” he said.
Khamenei made the comments to paramilitaries who
visited him as part of celebrations for Basij week.
The Basij is a volunteer militia recruited under the
auspices of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,
“The problem is not a few rioters in the street,
even if each rioter, each terrorist, must be punished,” Khamenei told the large
assembly.
“The battlefield is much broader. The main enemy is
the global arrogance,” he added, using Iran’s catch-all term for the
US and
allies including Israel.
President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday visited a Basij
unit in Tehran and told them: “You have performed brilliantly in the fight
against the rioters,” Tasnim news agency reported.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
