Middle East . Breaking Silence, Ayatollah Says Iran Is Standing Up to West in Nuclear Talks . By THOMAS ERDBRINK . NOV. 25, 2014
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran on Tuesday. Iran will not be brought “to its knees,” he said.Credit Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, via European PressphotoAgency
TEHRAN — The day after a deadline for concluding a nuclear agreement was extended for seven months, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivered his first remarks on the negotiations, saying that the West had failed to bring Iran “to its knees.”
Meeting on Tuesday with Muslim clerics in Tehran, the Iranian capital, Ayatollah Khamenei dismissed the diplomatic and economic pressure that world powers had brought to bear on his country over its nuclear ambitions.
“In the nuclear issue, America and colonial European countries got together and did their best to bring the Islamic Republic to its knees, but they could not do so — and they will not be able to do so,” his personal website quoted him as saying.
Ayatollah Khamenei has the final say on all important policy matters in Iran, including the country’s nuclear program. His remarks suggested that he would continue to support negotiations, but that he remained skeptical that they would yield a satisfactory agreement.
Six major powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — have been negotiating with Iran over the nuclear issue for a year. Iran is widely believed to be developing the materials and means to build nuclear weapons, though it maintains that its program is strictly civilian and peaceful.
Diplomats from all sides insisted until very recently that the Nov. 24 deadline for a deal was hard and fast. But on Monday, with no final agreement within reach, they extended the deadline until June 30.
Iran’s Key Nuclear Facilities
Research
facilities
Uranium enrichment
facilities
Nuclear power
plants
Uranium mining
or milling
Turkmenistan
Caspian
Sea
TURKEY
Tehran
SYRIA
Parchin
(military research facility)
Fordow
IRAQ
Arak
(under
construction)
afGH.
Natanz
Saghand
Ardakan
Esfahan
Darkhovin
(planned)
IRAN
Bushehr
Persian
Gulf
Gchine
SAUDI ARABIA
QATAR
U.A.E.
400 Miles
OMAN
Research facilities
Uranium enrichment facilities
Nuclear power plants
Turkmenistan
Tehran
Parchin
(military research facility)
IRAQ
Fordow
Arak
afGH.
Natanz
Esfahan
Darkhovin
(planned)
IRAN
Bushehr
SAUDI
ARABIA
U.A.E.
400 Miles
OMAN
Research facilities
Nuclear power plants
Uranium enrichment
facilities
Uranium mining
or milling
Turkmenistan
Caspian
Sea
Tehran
Parchin
(military research facility)
IRAQ
Fordow
Arak
(under
construction)
Natanz
afGH.
Saghand
Ardakan
Esfahan
Darkhovin
(planned)
IRAN
Bushehr
Persian
Gulf
Gchine
SAUDI
ARABIA
QATAR
U.A.E.
OMAN
400 Miles
In the Iranian Parliament, lawmakers erupted in their usual chants of “Death to America” after a lawmaker commenting on the deadline extension spoke of “the U.S.’s sabotaging efforts and its unreliability.”
The lawmaker, Mohammad-Hassan Aboutorabi-Fard, who is the deputy speaker of the Parliament, said Iran had learned from the nuclear negotiations that it had a strong hand to play. “Today, we can speak to the U.S. and its allies with the tone of power,” he said in remarks quoted by the Fars news agency. “A lesson can be taken from the recent nuclear talks that, for various reasons, the U.S. is not reliable.”
In a series of posts on a Twitter account used by his office, Ayatollah Khamenei accused the West of meddling in the Middle East and using Sunni militant groups to thwart the Arab Spring uprisings with intra-Muslim infighting, “in line with arrogant goals.” The Iranian authorities often use the term “arrogant powers” as shorthand for the United States and its allies.
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