We should not negotiate with America/If they threaten us, we will threaten them.
A group meeting of the commanders of the Air Force and Air Defense of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army with the Leader of the Revolution began with his arrival at the Imam Khomeini (RA) Husseiniyeh.
According to ISNA, excerpts from Ayatollah Khamenei’s remarks in this meeting are as follows:
*** First, negotiations with America do not affect resolving the country’s problems. We must understand this correctly; they should not pretend to us that if we sit at the negotiating table with that government, this or that problem will be solved. No; no problem will be solved by negotiating with America.
The reason? Experience!
In the 1990s, we sat down with America, negotiated for about two years, and a treaty was formed. Of course, America was not alone, there were several other countries, but the axis was America, mainly America. Our government sat down and negotiated – the government of that day – they went, came, sat down, stood up, negotiated, talked, laughed, shook hands, made friends, everything worked, and a treaty was formed. In this treaty, the Iranian side was very generous, it gave a lot of concessions to the other side. However, the Americans did not implement the same treaty. The same person who is in office now tore up the treaty. He said he would tear it up and did; they did not implement it. Before he came, the same people with whom this treaty was made did not implement the treaty. The treaty was to lift US sanctions, but US sanctions were not lifted; US sanctions were not lifted! As for the United Nations, they also left a bone in the wound so that it would always be there as a threat to Iran. This treaty was the product of negotiations that lasted two years – more or less.
Well, this is experience; let’s use this experience. We made concessions, negotiated, made concessions, and backed down, but we did not achieve the result we intended. The other side also ruined, violated, and tore up this treaty with all its flaws.