October 25-2013
Majlis Speaker Ali-Akbar Velayati and the Supreme Leader’s chief foreign policy adviser, Ali-Akbar Velayati, have both made a point of attacking the United States as untrustworthy and dishonorable in negotiations.
The charges appeared aimed at derailing the nuclear negotiations before they could go anywhere. Neither man called directly for the talks to be called off, but that was clearly the logic of their remarks.
Some cynics said this appeared to be a return to what many believe to be the driver of non-hardliner Iranian foreign policy in Tehran—that every politician wants to resolve the frictions with Washington but no one is willing to allow anyone else to get the credit for doing so.
Speaker Larijani said Sunday that Iranians are distrustful of the US because of Washington’s continued hostile policies.
He said the Americans are oppressors, whose crimes range from launching wars, suppressing the Palestinians, pillaging Muslim properties and imposing dictators. As a result, it is irrational to trust this country, he said, removing all justification for holding any talks with Washington.
Velayati sounded a similar note in an interview with the Fararoo website.
“The Americans once again have proved they are neither well-intentioned, nor, despite their claims, even interested in solving the Iran-US dispute. They refuse to observe mutual respect, with both sides enjoying equal rights,” Velayati said, without providing any evidence for his allegations.
Velayati was Iran’s foreign minister in the 1980s and was a candidate in the June presidential election where he came in fifth out of six candidates with 6.2 percent of he vote.
Velayati said Iran and the United States could have negotiated with each other at the UN in September and sought to resolve existing problems through dialogue, but the Americans were unwilling to do so.
“That is because one side stepped forth and said what he wanted to say, and played different types of tricks to enable him to contact the Iranian president,” Velayati said rather confusingly.
He added, “Some optimists had assumed that after those maneuvers the Iran-US problems would be resolved in a reasonable time, but Obama very shortly after that sat by the side of the head of the Zionist regime and repeated the harshest words that he had uttered [against Iran] once again.”
That was a reference to Obama’s comment for the umpteenth time that he would not take the military option off the table.
