Speech by Iran’s Supreme Leader Raises Ire as Talks Resume

NYTimes.com

The anti-Zionist speech by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, continued to stir controversy on Thursday as international negotiators resumed talks here with Iranian officials on Tehran’s nuclear program.

Politicians in Israel expressed outrage not only about Ayatollah Khamenei’s description of Israel on Wednesday as “the rabid dog of the region,” but also about the mild condemnation the speech elicited from the United States and much of Europe.

Hilik Bar, the deputy speaker of Israel’s Parliament and a member of the opposition Labor Party, wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry and Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, insisting that they “stand up against the dark, racist statements and incitement.”

The French president, François Hollande, responded sharply to Ayatollah Khamenei’s speech on Wednesday, saying that “Iran must offer answers” in the nuclear talks “and not a certain number of provocative statements.”

But a senior Obama administration official was more circumspect Wednesday night in responding to the ayatollah’s speech, which also assailed the United States and France. “I don’t ever like it when people use rhetoric that in any way talks about the U.S. in ways that I find very uncomfortable and not warranted whatsoever,” said the senior administration official, who cannot be identified under the diplomatic protocol for briefing reporters.

“There are decades of mistrust between the United States and Iran, and we certainly have had many people in our society say difficult things about Iran and Iranians,” the official added. “So I would hope that neither in the U.S. nor in Iran would leaders use rhetoric that may work well in a domestic constituency, but add to the decades of mistrust on both sides.”

In his televised address to thousands of militiamen in Tehran on Wednesday, Ayatollah Khamenei said that Israel was “doomed to extinction.” He had harsh words for France, which has been outspoken about the need to constrain Iran’s nuclear program. Ayatollah Khamenei accused French leaders of “kneeling before the Israeli regime.”

The ayatollah also accused the United States of “inhuman deeds,” citing its decision to use atomic weapons against Japan during World War II, its treatment of Native Americans and slavery. But he also said that the Iran wanted friendly ties with all nations, including the United States.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seized on Ayatollah Khamenei’s speech to press his case against the pending deal with Iran that is being hammered out in Geneva.

“This reminds us of the dark regimes of the past that plotted against us first, and then against all of humanity,” Mr. Netanyahu said at a meeting with Russian Jewish leaders during a visit to Moscow. “The public responded to him with calls of ‘Death to America! Death to Israel!'  ” Mr. Netanyahu noted. “Doesn’t this sound familiar to you? This is the real Iran! We are not confused. They must not have nuclear weapons.”

While Israeli leaders hoped to leverage the ayatollah’s statements to bolster their argument that Iran’s new moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, does not represent a real change, some Israeli analysts said the statements were more likely a sign that Iran was on the brink of reaching an agreement in Geneva and that it was concerned about appeasing hard-liners at home.

“As Iran approaches some kind of détente with the West, we can expect its rhetoric on Israel to become harsher,” Brandon Friedman, a researcher at Tel Aviv University’s Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, told The Jerusalem Post. Ayatollah Khamenei “wants to set the stage for a deal,” Mr. Friedman said, and “needs to reinforce the remaining pillar of ideology: the little Satan, or Israel.”

In Geneva, the American delegation, which is led by Wendy Sherman, a senior State Department official, met with some of the Iranian delegates Wednesday night.

American officials, representatives from five other world powers and Ms. Ashton are trying to conclude an interim accord with Iran that would halt Iran’s nuclear advances for six months, so that negotiators could pursue a more comprehensive agreement.

Ms. Ashton met with Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, on Thursday afternoon, “seeking further progress,” her spokesman said.

After that meeting, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, said that Iran has regained “some” of its “lost trust” in the nuclear negotiations, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported. On Wednesday, Mr. Araqchi had said that trust had been lost to a “great extent” in the previous round and needed to be restored.

Michael Gordon reported from Geneva, and Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem. Thomas Erdbrink contributed reporting from Tehran.