Iran's supreme leader rejects Joe Biden's offer of direct talks

Office of the Supreme Leader via EPA

Ayatollah Khamenei speaking to Iranian air force commanders during a ceremony in Tehran on Thursday.

By Marcus George, Reuters

Published at 7:18 a.m. ET: Iran's supreme leader on Thursday rejected an offer of direct talks made by Vice President Joe Biden this week, saying they would not solve the problems between them, Iranian media reported.

"Some naive people like the idea of negotiating with America, however, negotiations will not solve the problems," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speech to officials and members of Iran's aerospace force, IRIB reported.

"If some people want American rule to be established again in Iran, the nation will rise up to face them," he said.

"American policy in the Middle East has been destroyed and Americans now need to play a new card. That card is dragging Iran into negotiations."

Khamenei made his comments just days after Biden said the United States was prepared to meet bilaterally with the Iranian leadership. "That offer stands, but it must be real and tangible," Biden said in a speech in Munich.

Relations between Iran and the United States were severed in 1979 after the overthrow of Iran's pro-Western monarchy and diplomatic meetings between officials have since been very rare.

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Currently U.S.-Iran contact is limited to talks between Tehran and the so-called P5+1 group of powers on Iran's disputed nuclear program. The talks are to resume Feb. 26 in Kazakhstan.

Many believe no deal on settling the nuclear issue is possible without a U.S.-Iranian thaw. But any rapprochement would require direct talks addressing many sources of mutual mistrust that have lingered since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and the subsequent U.S. Embassy hostage crisis in Tehran.

Moreover, although his re-election last November may give President Barack Obama a freer hand to pursue direct negotiations, analysts say Iran's own presidential election in June may prove an additional obstacle to progress being made.

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