Iran's supreme leader approved US deal despite having 'different view'

TEHRAN, Jun 19: Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday that he had approved a deal with the United States to end the Middle East war despite having a "different view", without elaborating.

"In principle, I had a different view (about the memorandum of understanding), but I issued my permission due to the commitment that the honourable (Iranian) president, as the chairman of the Supreme National Security Council, gave me on behalf of himself and other members to protect the rights of the Iranian nation and the Resistance Front," Khamenei said in message read on state television
Khamenei has not been seen in public since he took office in March following the killing of his father and predecessor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 that sparked the regional war.

The message was his first reaction to the Iran-US deal to end the conflict that was signed by US Donald Trump and Iranian President MasoudPezeshkian.

Khamenei said Trump had "used all kinds of levers" to secure the deal "out of desperation".

In his message, Khamenei noted that he received assurances from Pezeshkian about the deal and that it would not be accepted "if the American side wants to make excessive demands".

"It is obvious that the face-to-face negotiations that will be held in the future will not mean accepting the enemy's point of view," he added.

The US-Iran framework deal agreed this week to end the Middle East war largely fails to address the situation of long-suffering Iranians, United Nations rights experts said Friday.

The memorandum of understanding signed this week by US President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart MasoudPezeshkian aims to end the war sparked on February 28 by the US-Israeli strikes that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A group of 18 independent UN rights experts said they welcomed the deal, but their statement warned that "any agreement that fails to address the human rights situation in Iran will be fundamentally incomplete".

"The memorandum focuses almost entirely on military withdrawal, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, nuclear commitments, sanctions relief and a $300 billion reconstruction fund," they pointed out.

"The Iranian people -- who have suffered enormously from both external military aggression and internal repression -- are barely visible in this framework."�" AFP