The comments by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini..., who has final say on all matters of state in the Islamic Theocratic
Republic, come as informal talks in Vienna continue ahead of a planned formal round of negotiations.
The talks already have been thrown into disarray by a weekend attack on Iran’s main nuclear enrichment site suspected to have been carried out by Israel. Tehran retaliated by announcing it would enrich uranium up to 60%.
"The offers they provide are usually arrogant and humiliating [and] are not worth looking at," Khamenei says in an address marking the first day of Ramadan in Iran.
While saying he remains positive about Iran’s negotiators, he criticizes the US and warns time could be running out. "The talks shouldn’t become talks of attrition," Khamenei says. "They shouldn’t be in a way that parties drag on and prolong the talks. This is harmful to the country."