In a Sept. 9 speech, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned about US intentions toward Iran and said that there will be no negotiations with the United States outside of the nuclear deal reached in July.

In one of his strongest anti-US speeches, Khamenei spoke about US support for the government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown in the 1979 revolution, asserting, “All of the pillars of the monarchy, from the administration to the shah himself, were dependent on America. And all of the American officials, through their puppets, used to rule like Pharaoh over the oppressed people of Iran. But Imam [Ruhollah Khomeini], like the Moses of his time, with the backing of the people, dismantled this arrangement in this ancient land.”

According to Khamenei, putting an end to US “illegitimate interests” in Iran is the primary reason for the United States' “endless enmity” toward Iran. On Ayatollah Khomeini calling the United States the “Great Satan,” Khamenei said, “The head of all the satans is the devil. But the work of the devil is only seduction and deception, whereas America seduces and also kills, sanctions, deceives and [is hypocritical].”

Of those in Iran who advocate better relations with the United States, Khamenei asked, even if “religion and being a revolutionary is put aside, what happens to loyalty, to the interests of the country and reason? What reason and conscience permits us to put makeup on crimes such as America’s and paint it as a friend and trustworthy?”