Nuclear agreement or not, Iran still considers the United States to be “the Great Satan”, a senior cleric declared on Friday.
Speaking in Tehran and quoted by the Tasnim news agency, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami warned against the American administration's “endless hostility” towards the Islamic Republic, saying that the nuclear deal with world powers should not lead to Iranian optimism about “the enemy”.
If we think that the U.S. has done us a favor by the (nuclear) agreement, it would be like we are prettifying the enemy,” he said, according to Tasnim.
“While signing the JCPOA, (President Barack) Obama signed new sanctions against Iran,” added Khatami. “This means that the U.S. is the same Great Satan that it was over thirty years ago,” he then declared.
Iranian officials have stressed that the Islamic Republic would unveil new domestically-designed and manufactured missiles in the near future in defiance of the new American sanctions.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently reiterated his warnings against what he termed U.S. "deceit," underlining how the regime in Tehran still remains decidedly hostile towards America.
And in December, he warned of the United States’ alleged intentions to “destroy Islamic civilization".
