Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei offered the nation American presidential race punditry in a speech delivered over the weekend. The ayatollah promised to pursue the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program with renewed vigor, while also pledging to shut out any future American overtures for negotiations. In a televised address in honor of the Eid al-Adha holiday, Khamenei offered the Iranian people a political analysis of the US presidential race, asserting that any talks between Iran and the US would lead nowhere, but would benefit incumbent President Donald Trump, who would exploit the development for political gains. He cited the talks between America and North Korea to support his position. The ayatollah stressed the importance of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, slamming the deal signed by his own Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the Western world in 2015 aimed at halting the program and also criticizing the European countries who still hope to keep it intact. On Saturday, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry claimed it had captured Jamshid Sharmahd, a California-based Iranian American who was accused by Tehran of perpetrating the 2008 bombing of an Iranian mosque that killed 14 and wounded 200. According to the government, Sharmahd, who was arrested while in Iran, headed an exiled opposition group hoping to depose the regime and reinstate the pre-1979 monarchy.
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