Khamenei slams 'oppressive powers'
Photo: AP
US President Obama. No. 1 enemy
Photo: AP
Khamenei: West, Zionists will fail to isolate Iran
Iranian supreme leader says Americans lead list of Islamic republic's enemies, while British are 'most awful of them'
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday that the United States and Britain who are Tehran's main "enemies" will fail to "isolate Iran"
over its nuclear issue, state television reported.
"Americans are at the head of the list of enemies and the British are the most awful of them," Khamenei said, addressing thousands of people in a speech to mark a major Shiite ceremony.
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"Americans, Zionists and other oppressive powers fear that Iran will turn into an example and that the Islamic nation will awaken, so they have been trying to isolate Iran for the past 30 years, but they failed and with God's help they will also fail in the future," state television quoted Khamenei as saying in reaction to sustained Western threats to isolate Iran over its atomic program.
Addressing the nuclear issue, the supreme leader noted that "the West's leaders, some of them influenced by the Zionists," were lying in regards to the nuclear program and attempting to deceive the global public opinion.
"These lies will eventually hurt them once the truth is revealed, just like they were disgraced by some of the things which took place in the past," he added, apparently referring to the American invasion of Iraq, which ended without proof of the existence of mass destruction weapons.
The supreme leader called on the leaders of the United States, Britain and other European countries "to avoid lying", and stressed that Iran was "interested in the nuclear knowledge it needs, Iran believes that if it fails to achieve it today, it will achieve it tomorrow. When the entire world's economy is based on nuclear power, it may be too late."
