Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, took a page out of President Trump's diplomacy handbook Monday by tweeting his refusal to conduct negotiations with the U.S. Khamenei outlined his disdain for America in a six-part thread on his English-language Twitter account, and he included an infographic detailing the "U.S. formula for negotiation," which slammed the U.S. government for being so focused on "power and money" that they "consider negotiations as a business deal."
Despite the hostilities, Khamenei declared on both Twitter and in a televised address that there will be no war between the two countries. Khamenei's assurance comes three weeks after Trump's explosive tweet telling Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to never threaten the U.S., "or you will suffer consequences."
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Tensions have been especially high between the two countries since the U.S. backed out of the Iran nuclear deal in May, Newsweek notes. The U.S. announced it was reimposing economic sanctions against Iran last week, putting pressure on Europe to choose between American and Iranian markets.
Although Khamenei tweeted that negotiations between the U.S. and Iran were "impossible," he said that if talks were to happen, they would "never ever be with the current U.S. administration." Read more at Reuters.
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