(BBC) | March 21, 2010
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has used a televised Iranian New Year address to accuse the US of plotting against the country.
He said the US government could not “talk about peace and friendship and at the same time plot and plan sedition”.
His words come a day after President Barack Obama sent a new year video message to Iranians saying Washington’s offer of dialogue still stood.
However, the Iranian leader did not refer directly to Mr Obama’s message.
In his address in the north-eastern city of Mashhad, broadcast on state TV, Ayatollah Khamenei said the US might have been making friendly overtures but its policies showed its intentions were different.
“Eight months after the elections they took the worst possible stance,” he said. “The president called those rioters and saboteurs ‘civil rights activists’.”