Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Rejects Talks with USA

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has rejected the prospect of talks with the United States on the nuclear program, saying nothing would be gained, state television reported Tuesday.

“Negotiations with the United States would have no benefit for us, and we do not need them,” the television quoted Khamenei as telling Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.

Khamenei did not rule out nuclear negotiations, although he insisted any such talks would be on Iranian terms.

“We will not negotiate with anybody on our certain right to reach and use nuclear technology. However, if they recognize this right for us, we are prepared to talk about international controls, supervision and guarantees, and the grounds for such negotiations have been prepared,” he said.

The United States, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany have offered Iran state-of-the-art civilian nuclear technology and other incentives on condition it halts enrichment. Western diplomats say this demand is not negotiable.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in April such talks were not needed since a permanent Iraqi government was in place.
Direct talks between the United States and Iran are rare. Most famously, they met in secret during the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s in which Washington supplied arms to Iran in return for Tehran’s help releasing U.S. hostages held in the Lebanon.
Washington broke ties with Tehran shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution when radical Iranian students held 52 Americans at the U.S. embassy hostage for 444 days.