Iran will never allow Western powers or the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect Tehran’s military sites as part of a final agreement with the P5+1 world powers, Iran’s Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani said Friday in an address to Tehran University students.
Kermani has enormous influence in the country as Tehran’s Friday Prayers imam, and is appointed directly by the country’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
He said that the West, and particularly the United States, “are hallucinating” if they think that Iran would allow inspection of its military apparatus, according to Iran’s state-controlled Fars News agency.
Those who wish for Iran to recognize the State of Israel as part of a final agreement should “bury their dreams,” the Ayatollah added.
He told the crowd, “We tell Mr. Amano (IAEA director general), the westerners, and the U.S. that they should bury their dreams of recognition of Israel and also the inclusion to visit Iran’s military sites within the framework of nuclear agreement.”
In addition to his role as Friday prayers leader, Kermani serves as the leader of the Combatant Clergy Association, an Iranian political party that helped overthrow the Shah in 1979 and install the radical Islamic Republic into power.
Kermani is known for his aggressive rhetoric, particularly towards the United States and the State of Israel. In 2014, he threatened to “raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground” and target U.S. bases worldwide. His Friday sermons have been rife with chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”
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