Supreme leader: US offer of negotiations with Iran a ‘deception’

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday threw cold water on the the prospect of negotiations with the Trump administration, calling an offer by the U.S. for talks a “deception.”

Reuters reported that Khamenei’s remarks were published on his official website Wednesday following President Trump’s offer Sunday for talks with no preconditions with Iran’s leaders.

{mosads}“Negotiations are a deception for what they want. A weapon is in your hands and they don’t dare come close. They say drop the weapon so I can do whatever I want with you. This is negotiation,” Khamenei said, according to Reuters.

His remarks come after the president stressed to NBC’s Chuck Todd last week that he was not seeking a war with Iran and that he would meet with Iran’s leaders to avert military conflict if possible.

“I’m not looking for war, and if there is, it’ll be obliteration like you’ve never seen before. But I’m not looking to do that. But you can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said of Iran on “Meet the Press.”

When asked if such talks would have any preconditions, the president said, “Not as far as I’m concerned. No preconditions.”

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have been high for weeks following attacks on two Japan-bound oil tankers and the destruction of a U.S. surveillance drone. The U.S. has blamed Iran for the tanker attacks and has said the drone was shot down over international waters at the time of the attack.

Iranian officials have taken no responsibility for the tanker attacks and claimed that the drone was actually over the country’s southern Hormozgan Province at the time it was destroyed.