Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei defended his country’s overall stance toward the United States as a “calculated” policy that will not change based on “who enters or leaves” the Oval Office. While admitting that “things may happen” under certain US presidents, Khamenei said, “This does not concern the Islamic Republic.”

The Iranian supreme leader made the televised comments on the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the former US Embassy in Tehran that lead to a hostage crisis lasting for 444 days. The episode prompted Washington to cut off its diplomatic ties with Tehran and triggered a cycle of hostilities between the two governments that has only worsened during President Donald Trump’s term in office.

While some of the revolutionary students involved in the embassy attack have regretted the takeover in hindsight, Khamenei justified it as an act of “absolute rationality” against American influence. “The outcome of US presence anywhere in the world has been nothing but insecurity, destruction and civil war,” he said.

The Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” policy against the Islamic Republic and the economic implications for its ordinary public has made the US election a topic of heated debate inside Iran. Khamenei expressed “wonder” at the US campaign, in which both candidates have already raised allegations of fraud and revealed the “ugly face of liberal democracy.” The Iranian leader once again predicted America’s "collapse” and “disintegration” regardless of who wins the election.