Iran's Supreme Leader says nuke talks reveal U.S. enmity

January 9, 2014 - 17:00 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday, Jan 9, that nuclear negotiations with world powers had revealed U.S. enmity towards the Islamic state, according to Reuters.

Khamenei was speaking hours before the resumption of talks between Iran and the European Union in Geneva.

"We had announced previously that on certain issues, if we feel it is expedient, we would negotiate with the Satan (the United States) to deter its evil," Khamenei told a gathering, reported by the official IRNA news agency. "The nuclear talks showed the enmity of America against Iran, Iranians, Islam and Muslims."

Iran and the EU hold talks in Geneva on Thursday to discuss the practical details of implementing a nuclear agreement reached in Geneva in November. U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman is also due to take part.

The Geneva deal was designed to halt Iran's nuclear advances for six months to buy time for negotiations on a final settlement. Scope for diplomacy widened after Iran elected the pragmatic Hassan Rouhani as president in June. He had promised to reduce Tehran's isolation and win an easing of sanctions.

Despite fierce criticism by political and religious hardliners, who see the agreement as an infringement of Iranian sovereignty, Khamenei had previously backed the accord.

Under the deal, Iran will curb its atomic activities in return for some easing of the international sanctions that have battered the oil producer's economy.

Iran says its nuclear work is entirely peaceful but the West suspects it is aimed at acquiring a nuclear bomb capability.

Iran is under UN, U.S. and European Union sanctions for refusing to heed UN Security Council demands that it halt all enrichment- and plutonium-related work at its nuclear sites.

Khamenei said international sanctions imposed on Iran had not pressured the Islamic state to enter negotiations with major powers.

"Our enemies do not know the great Iranian nation. They think that their imposed sanctions forced Iran to enter negotiations. No, it is a wrong," Khamenei said.

Nuclear experts from Iran and the six powers have held several rounds of talks since November 24 to resolve various technical issues before the interim deal can be put into place. The experts have to work out when the accord will be implemented. Western diplomats and Iranian officials say the six powers and Iran want to start implementing the deal on January 20.

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Iran's nuclear program

Iran's leaders have worked to pursue nuclear energy technology since the 1950s, spurred by the launch of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace program. It made steady progress, with Western help, through the early 1970s. But concern over Iranian intentions followed by the upheaval of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 effectively ended outside assistance. Iran was known to be reviving its civilian nuclear programs during the 1990s, but revelations in 2002 and 2003 of clandestine research into fuel enrichment and conversion raised international concern that Iran's ambitions had metastasized beyond peaceful intent. Although Iran has consistently denied allegations it seeks to develop a bomb, the September 2009 revelation of a second uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom -constructed under the radar of international inspectors - deepened suspicion surrounding Iran's nuclear ambitions.