Iran will not change policies toward US: Academic

Press TV has interviewed Mohammad Hassan Khani, a professor at Imam Sadiq University in Tehran, about Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s Eid al-Fitr remarks.

Following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Going over the comments of Ayatollah Khamenei, he stressed that Iran’s overall policy towards the United States will not change. Give us your thoughts on those statements.

Khani: What we heard today from Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei shows, in one way, the complexity and the very deep - I can say - mistrust between Iran and the United States, and how complicated is the relationship between Iran and the United States. It seemed to many analysts that maybe this encounter between Iran and the United States over the nuclear issue, these rounds of negotiations between the two sides, can pave the way for normalization of the relationship between two sides.

The possibility of normalization between the two countries is still there provided the United States changes its hostile policy and threatening language towards Iran, but unfortunately what we have heard in the past few days from Washington doesn’t show any indication that the United States is going to do that and apparently and logically the response of Iran would be almost the same so Iranians have no reason to believe that the United States is going to change its policies towards Iran and it would be very naive for American politicians to believe that Iran is going to change or abandon the principles of its foreign policy, supporting its allies in the region, or even somehow to change its mind when it comes to boosting its military in conventional terms.

So I think the story will be the old story and we are not going to witness any dramatic change in the bilateral relations between Tehran and Washington, unless, as I said, we see indications from Washington that says it is going to change this hostility and this hostile approach towards Iran.

Press TV: Ayatollah Khamenei also pointed out two other issues: he said that the United States’ strategy in the region is totally different from that of Iran, also saying that Iran will never bow down to the excessive demands of its enemies. Talk to us about those issues as well.

Khani: Exactly. Maybe there are those in the United States that expect Iran to change its policies after these negotiations, and after the nuclear deal. But as I said these two countries have two different agendas when it comes to how to see the equation of power in the Middle East and if there is this expectation from Washington that Iran is going to change its principles of foreign policy to abandon its allies and to somehow change its policy towards supporting Yemenis, Bahrainis or Syria, this is apparently a very false approach and I don’t think it is going to work out that way.

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