Following a declaration of the chief of Iran’s nuclear program that talks with world powers have resulted in “good news,” the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic said on Sunday that his country would continue its campaign against the ‘arrogant’ US.
According to Iran’s state-run FARS news agency, at a Q&A with university students in Tehran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that “the US is the complete instance of arrogance” and reminded those listening to “get yourselves ready for a continuing campaign against the arrogance.”
“Campaign against the arrogant powers and hegemonic system is one of the tenets and essence of the revolution,” said the Supreme Leader and warned that “we would not be subordinate to the Quran if we stop the campaign against the arrogance.”
Khameini’s remarks surfaced soon after Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met, yet again, with the US Secretary of State John Kerry in Austria’s Palais Coburg, where the final details of a potential nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 nations are being ironed out.
While Iranian officials relished in what they considered diplomatic progress, Kerry, however, expressed via Twitter that the two sides still have some “difficult issues” to resolve.
Fiery rhetoric on the part of Iran has hounded the validity of the multilateral nuclear talks. On Friday, Iranian media reported that millions of people took part in ‘Quds Day’, burning Israeli, American, Saudi Arabian, and British flags in Tehran.
Demonstrators also carried placards and chanted “Down with the US” and “Down with Israel.”
The rhetoric of Khamenei’s speech reflects arguments made by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, also on Quds Day, in which he blasted the deal emerging in Vienna, suggesting that it was a duplicitous arrangement.
“If the entire nuclear deal hinges on the precondition of acknowledging Israel as a state, the Iranian republic and its people would never accept such a condition,” said the Shi’ite cleric, “because they would be renouncing their religion if they accept such a stance.”
Nasrallah then claimed that “Iran’s enemies are the enemies of religion,” and asserted that the Islamic Republic is, “after God,” the only hope left for this region.”