Secretary of State John Kerry allegedly told his Iranian counterpart that he wished the U.S. had a head of state more like Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to
The Washington Free Beacon.
Citing remarks from a senior Iranian cleric that were broadcast in the country’s state-run media, Kerry reportedly told Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during nuclear negotiations between the two powers that he "wished the U.S. had a leader like Iran’s supreme leader."
The claim came from senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Alam al-Hoda, according to a Persian-language report on the remarks published by the Asriran news site, which said that the comments were made during Friday prayer services.
"In the negotiations Kerry told Zarif that he wished the U.S. had a leader like Iran’s supreme leader," according to al-Hoda, who is a senior member of the Iran’s powerful Assembly of Experts, the Beacon reported.
But a senior U.S. administration official told the Beacon that such a notion was utterly ridiculous.
Meanwhile, Saeed Ghasseminejad, an Iranian dissident at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, has claimed that the U.S. "overtures" to Iran at the nuclear bargaining table have failed to win America any respect from the Islamic Republic’s leaders.
"President Obama thinks that by making more concessions he can gain the trust and respect of Iranian leaders," Ghasseminejad said. "However, Iranian leaders neither trust him nor respect him.
"Seeing unprecedented weakness in the U.S. president, Iranian leaders do not fear the United States anymore. Partnership, trust, and alliance between the radical Islamist regime of Tehran and United States cannot and should not exist."
According to the
Fars News Agency, Zarif said over the weekend that fighting between the Obama administration and Congress over a potential final deal could not prevent the U.S. from carrying out any final agreement the White House signs.
"As we have stated since the beginning, we consider the U.S. administration responsible for implementing the agreement, and internal problems and conflicts in the U.S. are not related to us and to the implementation of the agreement," Zarif said.
"Based on the international laws, the countries’ internal problems don’t exempt them from implementing their undertakings and this is the main framework that we attach importance to," he said.
On Monday, Zarif pressed the United States to have a better relationship with Iran.
"Maintaining an uncertain and unstable situation is not acceptable to Iran and the Americans should take practical and confidence-building measures to reach a comprehensive nuclear agreement," Zarif told reporters, the Beacon said.
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