Khamenei Blames Obama for post-election Disturbances Demands non-intervention as prerequisite to improved ties

The USG Open Source Center summarizes the address of Leader Ali Khamenei of Iran on the occasion of the Persian New Year, in which he replies to President Barack Obama's offer of direct negotiations and an opportunity for Iran to end its diplomatic isolation. Khamenei blamed Obama for the protests that shook the regime last summer and fall, and said that such subversion made improved relations with the US a non-starter. Actually, the Green Movement is indigenous and took Washington by surprise. Khamenei, in rejecting its legitimacy and sincerity and turning it into an American plot, not only injures a significant group in the Iranian body politic but also stupidly pushes away the first sincere overtures from Washington in decades. Sometimes good policy making falters because potential diplomatic partners are paranoid and unable to escape their own mental cramp.

FYI -- Iran: Khamene'i Says 'Fate of the Enemy is Failure' in New Year Address
Islamic Republic of Iran News Network Television (IRINN)
Sunday, March 21, 2010 ...
Document Type: OSC Summary

Tehran Islamic Republic of Iran News Network Television (IRINN) in Persian

at 1300 GMT on 21 March carried live an address by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i's to pilgrims and the people of Mashhad at the Shrine of the eighth Shiite imam, Reza, in Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi Province. . .

He then referred to President Obama's hand of friendship message and said: "In my last year's message on the first day of the new year at a huge gathering here I talked to you about the new American President's message where he said 'we stretch a hand of friendship.' I said that we will follow up the issue with vigilance. We will watch out to see if it really is a hand of friendship and whether intentions are friendly or they are hostile intentions in the form of deceiving words. This is very important to us. I said last year that if underneath your velvet gloves lie iron fists we will not stretch out our hands and will not accept your friendship. We are careful to make sure that a dagger is not hiding behind your smiles.

"Unfortunately, what happened was exactly what was expected. The American Government and the new establishment and president with their interest in just and appropriate relations -- about which they wrote a letter and sent a message and announced over loudspeakers and repeated at private parties -- said that we want to normalize our relations with the Islamic Republic. Unfortunately they did the opposite. In the eight months after the elections they adopted the worst possible stance. The American President introduced the street rioters as a civil movement."

He said: "You cannot talk about friendship but at the same time hatch plots and try to harm the Islamic Republic."
Khamene'i said the action of the enemy should not be hidden from the eyes of the Iranian officials. He concluded that Iran will continue its path and is sure that will succeed as it has done in the past. He said the fate of Iran is success and the fate of the enemy is failure.

Khamene'i concluded his speech with prayers.

The broadcast ended at 1412 GMT.. .

(Description of Source: Tehran Islamic Republic of Iran News Network Television (IRINN) in Persian -- 24-hour news channel of state-run television, officially controlled by the office of the supreme leader)


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