Support for Khamenei's anti US policy

Shiite religious men, the Iranian armed forces, and government spokesman, announced their support for Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed-Ali Khamenei who attacked the US in a speech delivered last Friday.

More than 200 members of Iran's consultative council signed a petition in which they expressed their firm support for Khamenei's refusal of any official talks with the US.

Khamenei refused to negotiate with the "American great Satan," excluding the idea of direct normalization between the two countries.

The planning council of the Khorasan Theological Seminary said Khamenei's speech "frustrated efforts by arrogant powers and media to plant seeds of doubt and discord and to induce the notion that the Islamic Republic is inclined to negotiate with the U.S."

President Khatami commented, "We have decided not to succumb to oppressive pressure and as long as there are people who apply coercive pressure on others and resort to force, and as long as there are world powers which seek to base their relations with other nations on the principle of oppressive pressure on those nations, they cannot expect anything from the Iranian nation."