[At the same time, Mr. Khamenei
made clear that a single agreement does not mean Iran ’s
relationship with the United States
will change, and he promised to continue support for regional allies, including
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria
and the Lebanese-based Hezbollah movement.]
By Thomas Erdbrink
 |
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of
a prayer
marking the end of the Muslim fasting month Ramadan. Credit Office of
the
Iranian Supreme Leader, via Associated Press
|
TEHRAN — Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the
supreme leader of Iran, voiced support on Saturday for his country’s nuclear
deal with world powers while emphasizing that the agreement did not signal an
end to Iran’s hostility toward the United States and its allies, especially
Israel.
“Their actions in the region are 180
degrees different from ours,” he said, while also praising Iran ’s
annual anti-Israel rally, known here as Quds Day, and the slogans of “Death to America ”
and “Death to Israel .”
Speaking after a special prayer
marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Mr. Khamenei portrayed
the nuclear agreement as a victory for Iran ,
not least because it does not require the country to completely stop enriching
uranium, as some in the West had wanted. The speech appeared to remove a main
obstacle to formal approval of the agreement in Iran .
“After 12 years of struggling
with the Islamic republic, the result is that they have to bear the turning of
thousands of centrifuges in the country,” Mr. Khamenei said, referring to the United
States and its five negotiating partners.
Though analysts said his positive
portrayal of the agreement would probably quiet hard-line critics in Iran ,
it also seemed likely to become fodder for critics in the United
States , complicating President Obama’s
efforts to sell the deal to Congress and the American people.
The agreement, which in its final
form runs to 159 pages, was reached on Tuesday after 20 months of negotiations
between Iran and a group of six nations led by the United States. It is
intended to significantly limit Tehran ’s
ability to produce nuclear weapons for more than a decade in return for lifting
international sanctions.
Mr. Obama has made the agreement
a benchmark of his presidency. It is opposed by Republicans and by Israel
and Saudi Arabia ,
two of the United States ’
most significant allies in the region. They have denounced it as a diplomatic
mistake that will strengthen the economic and military power of a nation that
aggressively threatens its neighbors, engages in and supports hostage-taking
and terrorism, and is bent on acquiring nuclear weapons, deal or no deal.
Mr. Obama has insisted that the
agreement is “not built on trust — it is built on verification.” Mr. Khamenei
portrayed it as an acceptance by the West of Iran’s commitment to go ahead with
a nuclear program, which its leaders have insisted was being pursued solely for
peaceful purposes.
Like most of his remarks, the
speech attempted a delicate balance between appeasing anti-West hard-liners and
those longing for change in Iran ,
with rhetoric that could be interpreted favorably on either side of the
domestic divide.
The speech stopped short of a
flat-out endorsement of the agreement, but because it did not include any
specific criticism of it the deal, analysts said it would probably speed the
acceptance of the agreement by Iran ’s
Supreme National Security Council and parliament.
At the same time, Mr. Khamenei
made clear that a single agreement does not mean Iran ’s
relationship with the United States
will change, and he promised to continue support for regional allies, including
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria
and the Lebanese-based Hezbollah movement.
Under the agreement, Iran
is forced to give up large parts of its nuclear program and accept intrusive
inspections, even of military sites. The number of its uranium-enrichment
centrifuges will be cut by two-thirds. Iran ’s
leaders say that what matters is Western acceptance that Iran
will continue to have a nuclear program and that when the agreement ends in 2025,
Iran will be
able to enrich uranium and plutonium without limits.
A draft resolution canceling
sanctions against Iran
and formalizing the steps that Iran
is expected to take is to be presented at the United Nations Security Council
on Monday. The five permanent members of the council — Britain ,
China , France ,
Russia and the United
States — negotiated the nuclear deal with Iran
along with Germany .
Several leading members of
Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, have urged President Obama not to
submit the agreement to the Security Council until Congress has first voted its
approval or disapproval.
Critics say that by restoring Iran ’s
potential access to around $100 billion in frozen funds around the world, the
agreement will free the country to finance an expanded campaign of aggression
in the Middle East .
Iranian hard-liners have been
complaining that the deal’s restrictions on Iran ’s
nuclear program make it just a symbol rather than an industrial-size energy-producing
effort. Many hard-liners also feared that a nuclear deal would be the end of Iran ’s
hostile stance toward the United States .
Mr. Khamenei nodded to the
complaints, accusing the West of trying to “remove all of the nuts and bolts of
Iran ’s nuclear
industry.”
As for the end of hostility with
the West, such a thing will never happen, said Mr. Khamenei, making clear that
new relations between Iran
and the United States ,
and possibly cooperation on other issues, are “dreams” that will not become a
reality.
“We do not negotiate with the U.S.
about different global and regional issues,” Mr. Khamenei said. “We do not
negotiate about bilateral issues. Sometimes, in some exceptional cases, like
the nuclear case, and due to the expediency, we may negotiate.”
He also seized on remarks by Mr. Obama
at a news conference on Thursday, when the president acknowledged that the United
States had made mistakes in its Iran
policies, such as organizing a coup in 1953 and supporting the Iraqi president
Saddam Hussein during his war with Iran
between 1980 and 1988.
“He mentioned two or three points
but did not confess to tens of others,” Mr. Khamenei said.
“I am telling you,” the ayatollah
said, referring to the United States ,
“you are making a mistake now — in different parts of this region, but
especially about the Iranian nation.” He did not offer specifics. “Wake up,” he
said. “Stop making mistakes. Understand the reality.”
Analysts said Mr. Khamenei’s
remarks would quiet critics.
“He has stopped insisting on red
lines and other restrictions; he also avoided any details of the agreement,”
said Nader Karimi Joni, an Iranian journalist in favor of a nuclear deal. “He
supports the deal and agrees with its contents.”
Farshad Ghorbanpour, a political
analyst close to the government, said the speech “cooled down hard-liners, who
had been preparing to openly oppose the deal.”
At the same time, he said, “Even,
in the very unlikely event that an American embassy will ever be opened here, the
slogans of ‘Death to America ’
and ‘Death to Israel ’
will not be forgotten.”
Indeed, Mr. Khamenei stressed
that — deal or no deal — Iran
would never stop supporting its regional allies. “We will always support the
oppressedPalestinian nation, Yemen ,
Syrian government and people, Iraq ,
and oppressed Bahraini people, and also the honest fighters of Lebanon
andPalestine,” he said.
American support for Israel
will remain a roadblock, he signaled. He cited the United
States ’s description of Hezbollah as a
terrorist organization and asked how “Americans can support the child-killing
Zionist government, and call Hezbollah terrorist? How can one interact, negotiate,
or come to an agreement with such a policy?”
Worshipers began chanting and
pumping their fists as he said the slogans “Death to Israel ”
and “Death to America ”
would continue to be heard in the streets of Iran .
