TEHRAN - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ahead of the US elections and anniversary of the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran, said on Wednesday that hatred of Washington was deep-seated.
| Turns out many of us Americans feel the same about you, pal. And I suspect that out in the countryside of your country, you don't speak for as many of your people as you think ... |
‘This conflict goes far beyond having differences over a few political issues,’ Khamenei told students in a speech, quoted by state television ahead of the 29th anniversary of the 1979 hostage-taking at the embassy.
The supreme guide said his country's ‘hatred towards the US government is deep-seated because of its plots against the Iranian people over the past 50 years.’ Iran holds the United States responsible for a 1953 coup that deposed the administration of its then prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq and restored the shah.
| Mosaddeq was in league with the Tudeh communists in Iran and would have handed the country over to the Russians. That we helped remove him is a mark in our favor. |
‘Besides, they have not apologised yet and rather keep on their arrogant attitude,’ he said ahead of the November 3 anniversary of the embassy seizure that the Islamic republic marks with nationwide demonstrations.
Khamenei praised the ‘great move of students... to take over the centre of espionage.’
The two countries have had no diplomatic relations for close to three decades after Islamist students took US diplomats at the mission hostage for 444 days. |