Ayatollah Khamenei: "Don't be fooled by American smiles"

Senior Advisor to the Iranian Parliament Speaker Hossein Amir Abdollahian announced total and ultimate failure of the US attempts to deceive Tehran and Moscow to agree to exclude Syrian President Bashar Assad from future power equations of his war-torn country. "In recent months, the Americans attempted indirectly to persuade the Islamic Republic of Iran and force it diplomatically to accept that Bashar Assad play no role in Syria's future but the precise positions of the Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Khamenei) and the Islamic Republic's strategy prevented materialization of the US and the Zionist regime's goals in this regard," Amir Abdollahian said in a meeting with Syrian Parliament Speaker Hadiya Khalaf Abbas in Tehran on Wednesday.

"Concurrently, the Americans also made intensive efforts to force Russia to cooperate with the White House in excluding Bashar Assad through a carrot and stick policy, but Moscow showed a wise behavior too," he added.

Amir Abdollahian referred to Ayatollah Khamenei's ban on negotiations with the US on regional and Syria issues, and said history has shown that the American statesmen are not trustworthy at all.

Earlier this month, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei strongly dismissed talks with Washington on the current crises in the region, and said negotiation with such an untrustworthy state as the US is "harmful". "The Americans are insisting that we hold talks with them on the West Asian issues, specially Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen; what is their real objective behind these demands for talks? They have no goal but preventing the Islamic Republic of Iran's presence in the region as the main cause of the US failures," Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) commanders and officials in Tehran.

He reminded of the tricks and clear enmity shown by the Americans towards Iran during the nuclear talks, and said, "Wisdom requires that we mistrust completely those who have clearly displayed their animosity."

Stressing that negotiations with the US bear no fruit, but harm for Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei said such talks are only meant to open the path for the US influence in Iran.

He underlined that "one of the most important parts of the Islamic Republic's soft power is its complete distrust of the hegemonic powers, headed by the US", and said this mistrust should increase day by day.

Ayatollah Khamenei rejected claims that nuclear talks helped defuse threats against Iran, stressing that the enemies have given up threats against Iran because of its "defensive and military power" and their fear of the outcome of any belligerent act against the Islamic Republic.

Owing to the same fact, he said, Iran's defense and military power should be promoted in future.

He also addressed certain regional states, and said, "If you don’t keep vigilant and don’t understand the tricks of the US hegemonic system and become fooled by their smile, you will possibly come to experience a 50 or 100-year backwardness."

The Supreme Leader underscored the necessity for the Iranian officials' vigilance against enemies' plots to influence and impose their hegemony on the country.