03/11/2009 Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei lashed out at the United States on Tuesday, saying Tehran will reject any talks backed by its arch-foe as Washington is not to be trusted. Sayyed Khamenei said Washington wanted to negotiate with Tehran but its talks were full of "threats." "Every time they have a smile on their face, they are hiding a dagger behind their back," said the supreme leader.
  
"Iran will not be fooled by the superficial conciliatory tone of the United States," said Sayyed Khamenei in a speech to students on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the seizure of US embassy in Tehran by students. "This new American president repeatedly sent us oral and written messages to come and change the page... to come and cooperate in solving the problems of the world. We said we will not pre-judge. We will see their action and see what they do about the change," his eminence said.
  
"But in the past eight months what we have seen is contradictory to what they say. They are telling us to negotiate, but alongside the negotiation there is a threat that if the negotiation does not bear the desired results, then we will do this and we will do that. "We do not want any negotiation, the result of which is pre-determined by the United States," he said, adding that Tehran will always pursue its "scientific and technological rights and freedom."
  
His comments raised the possibility that the high-profile nuclear fuel deal backed by Washington could be derailed. Sayyed Khamenei said that giving the United States a veto over the nuclear talks would be like a "sheep and wolf relation which the late imam (Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini) has said that we 'do not want'. Sayyed Khamenei also said that those with "ill-intentions" against the regime will not be allowed to "throw down the red carpet to the United States."
 
The supreme leader’s comments came as Iran prepared to mark the 30th anniversary of the November 4, 1979 seizure of the US embassy that sparked the rupture of relations with Washington. Iranian students held 52 US diplomats hostage for 444 days. The commemoration has become one of Iran’s cornerstones and every year students gather outside the embassy building in central Tehran and shout "Death to America!" and "Death to Israel!"