Furious Iran leader slams negotiations with Trump in ‘secret letters’ | World | News
Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei has penned a secret letter to his negotiators as they attempt to broker a long-term peace treaty with the United States, telling the Iran delegation that “talks must be stopped”.
Khamenei, who has been Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic since March after the death of his father at the commencement of the Iran-US war, lashed out at Iranian officials for ‘overstepping’ their authority by coming to an agreement with Washington against his instructions, as per an unnamed Iran politician.
Iranian MP Mahmoud Nabavian, the deputy chair of Iran’s national security council, broke ranks at the weekend by revealing tensions between the US and Iran about Tehran’s negotiating stance. The radical move by the hardline MP has triggered a political firestorm back in Iran, with fuel only added to the fire after he took to a TV news broadcast to read -what he claimed – was classified correspondence Iran’s new Supreme Leader himself.
Nabavian took to Sima, the usually highly-censored Iranian state broadcaster and propaganda machine – to claim the letters lashed out at Iran’s negotiating team had overstepped Khamenei’s orders.
To proceed with negotiations, the ayatollah reportedly made 11 non-negotiable terms clear to the delegation. Such conditions included a commitment of financial compensation for war damages from the United States, as well as the lifting of sanctions and unfreezing Iranian assets.
He also drew a line in the sand on Iran’s stance on enriched uranium, demanding that the Islamic Republic retain its right to enrich uranium and maintain complete sovereignty over strategic waterway the Strait of Hormuz.
Nabavian read out part of the supposedly-secret letter penned by Khamenei on television, claiming: “What was agreed upon in the Pakistan talks is completely different from what was supposed to happen and was a condition for the legitimacy of the talks, and the talks must be stopped.”
Soon thereafter the television feed was abruptly cut, with the state broadcaster later announcing that legal action would follow and one of its directors had resigned in the wake of the uncensored television debacle.
Nabavian secret letter claims were later minimised by a spokesperson for the Iranian peace delegation, who claimed the information was old and distorted, The Guardian reported.
The explosive television moment comes in the wake of comments made by the new Supreme Leader, who has previously stated that had allowed the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to go ahead after assurances that Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, who is leading the high-ranking group of delegates which includes key cabinet ministers and Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi, would “protect the rights of the Iranian nation”.
Khamenei also previously hit out at Trump’s negotiating tactics, claiming the 47th President of the United States had “out of desperation, used all kinds of leverage” to bring the MOU about.
The Ayotollah added that, while there may be “in-person negotiations in the future” between delegates from both the US and Iran, it does “will not mean acceptance of the enemy’s position”.
