[ad_1]
LONDON (Reuters) – The Iranian Supreme Leader's top adviser on Tuesday rejected a US offer for high-level meetings, with the presidents of both countries scheduled to attend the US General Assembly in New York.
Ali Akbar Velayati, Supreme Advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in charge of international affairs, smiles as he listens to media questions at a press conference after meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam at Beirut Palace . REUTERS / Mohamed Azakir
The elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards also maintained anti-Americans. rhetoric in preparation for the US session, calling President Donald Trump "evil and adventurous" and accusing him of leading an economic war against Tehran.
Trump has withdrawn from an international nuclear deal with Iran in May and has since begun to reinstate economic sanctions and to push other countries to stop buying Iranian oil.
Trump said in July that he was ready to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani without preconditions to negotiate a new deal.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo repeated the offer on Sunday and extended it to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, explaining to Fox News, "He is leading the show in Iran. I think it would be an important and interesting conversation. "
President Rouhani, considered a moderate, did not exclude the meetings between the two countries. But he has been under increasing pressure from extremists, including guards, since Trump retired from the 2015 nuclear deal.
Asked about the offer of talks, Khamenei's former assistant, Ali Akbar Velayati, said "the dream of Trump and Pompeo would never come true," according to the IRNA news agency.
The Revolutionary Guards' statement said: "The wicked and adventurous American president has focused on an economic war and cruel sanctions to deflect the Iranian nation from revolutionary values and its national interests."
Iran has limited its nuclear activities in exchange for easing sanctions in the 2015 nuclear deal. Trump has withdrawn, saying the deal did not go far enough.
But other countries that signed it – who believe the deal offers the best chance of preventing Iran from developing a nuclear bomb – agreed Monday to continue working to maintain trade with Tehran.
Separately, the guards also said that Saturday's attack on a military parade that killed 25 people was a "miscalculation on the part of the enemy, because that crime only united the Iranian nation."
Iran accused the United States of supporting the attackers who led the attack, but Washington denied any prior knowledge of the incident.
Report by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Andrew Heavens
