Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke Oct. 1 to Iranian commanders and officers about the futility of compromising with the enemy. Although Khamenei has recently made harsh statements targeting Saudi Arabia over the stampede at the hajj that killed 465 Iranians, his statements to military leaders were indirect but can be construed as a response to the historic handshake between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US President Barack Obama Sept. 28 at the UN General Assembly in New York.

In praising Iran’s independence despite the hostility of other countries, Khamenei said, “The enemy wants the submission of the Islamic system, and by appeasing them, the hostility will not be resolved.” He added, “The rise of an independent nation that opposes the bullies and those who are affiliated with them is intolerable for the dominating powers. Therefore, they are hostile to these types of [independent] nations, and the idea that if we don’t say a certain thing, or do not do such a thing, be considerate with the enemy and their hostility will decline, is a wrong idea.”

Khamenei’s comments come at a time when a number of Iranian parliamentarians have been attacking Zarif for shaking hands with Obama. Just before Khamenei’s speech, the spokesman for the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, asked rhetorically, “With compromise, appeasement, shaking hands, greeting one another, will the problems be resolved?” Mohseni-Ejei said that Iran’s strength, rather than “bowing down,” is what led the United States to seek negotiations with it. Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, also warned against lowering hostilities with the United States.

While Iranian sources confirmed the handshake, which took place beyond the view of cameras, they claimed that the encounter between Zarif and Obama had been “incidental,” occurring as the Iranian delegation was leaving the UN hall. It seems unlikely, however, that such a historic moment was “incidental,” given that President Hassan Rouhani ran for office on a campaign promise of decreasing tensions between Iran and the world, and Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry met regularly during the two years of nuclear negotiations.