TEHRAN — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Sunday that the United States confronts Iran because it wants the country to be “obedient,” a demand he called “offensive.” He vowed the nation would resist.
Speaking in Tehran, Khamenei rejected calls for direct negotiations with Washington and said US hostility has been consistent since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the official Irna news agency reported.
He referred to a June 13 attack on Iran, saying US-linked groups met in a European capital the next day to discuss a “post-Islamic Republic” order, even proposing a monarch. Those efforts, he said, were thwarted by the resilience of the Iranian people and state institutions.
Khamenei urged unity at home and support for President Masoud Pezeshkian, warning that Iran’s adversaries were seeking to stir internal divisions.
He also condemned Israel’s campaign in Gaza, called on Western states to halt their support for it, and praised actions by Yemen’s Houthi movement against Israel as justified. / XINHUA