DUBAI: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday used his first public appearance in weeks to suggest the United States would remain hostile towards the Islamic Republic even after President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
Speaking at his first public function since rumours surfaced in early December that his health was deteriorating, Khamenei said Washington could not be trusted, a remark indicating a wary attitude towards President Donald Trump’s successor. In a meeting with organisers of events to mark the first anniversary of the killing of military commander Qassem Soleimani in a US attack in Iraq, Khamenei said American antagonism would not disappear with the end of the Trump administration.
“My firm recommendation is not to trust the enemy,” Khamenei said in remarks carried by state TV. “The hostility (against Iran) is not just from Trump’s America, which supposedly some could say would end when he leaves, as (President Barack) Obama’s America also did bad things to ...the Iranian nation.” Biden was Obama’s vice-president. Earlier, President Hassan Rouhani said he was happy Trump was leaving office, calling him “the most lawless US president” and a “murderer” for hampering Iran’s access to COVID-19 vaccines.
“We are not overjoyed about Mr Biden’s arrival, but we are happy about Trump leaving... that such a terrorist and murderer, who does not even have mercy for coronavirus vaccines, will be gone,” Rouhani said in a televised speech to the cabinet. — Reuters
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