page_title: Ali Khamenei
section_title: Comments about United States and its foreign policy
hierarchical_section_title: Ali Khamenei / Foreign policy / Comments about United States and its foreign policy
caption_attribution_description: English: Xi Jinping, the Chinese Paramount Leader and his entourage met with Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran.
context_page_description: Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei is a Twelver Shia Marja' and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously President of Iran from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei is the longest serving head of state in the Middle East, as well as the second-longest serving Iranian leader of the last century, after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
  According to his official website, Khamenei was arrested six times before being sent into exile for three years during Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's reign. After the Islamic revolution overthrowing the shah, he was the target of an attempted assassination in June 1981 that paralysed his right arm. Khamenei was one of Iran's leaders during the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s, and developed close ties with the now powerful Revolutionary Guards which he controls, and whose commanders are elected and dismissed by him. The Revolutionary Guards have been used to suppress opposition to him. Khamenei served as the third President of Iran from 1981 to 1989, while becoming a close ally of the first Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini.
context_section_description: The United States and Iran have had no formal diplomatic relations since the Iran hostage crisis of 1980 when US embassy was taken over and US diplomats were taken prisoner.  According to study by Karim Sadjadpour, speeches by Khamenei regularly mention the principle of resolute opposition to the United States; and according to Karim Sadjadpour he has "resisted Rafsanjani's attempts to find a modus vivendi with the United States", and once told reformist president Mohammad Khatami that "we need the United States as an enemy".
  On 4 June 2006, Khamenei said that Iran would disrupt energy shipments from the Persian Gulf region (about 20% of the world's daily supply of oil passes from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz very close to Iran's coast) should the country come under attack from the US, insisting that Tehran will not give up its right to produce nuclear fuel.
  On 14 September 2007, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (on the 1st Friday prayer of Ramadan) predicted that George W. Bush and American officials will one day be tried in an international criminal court to be held "accountable" for the U.S. led invasion of Iraq. He asserts that the United States is the main cause of insecurity in Iraq.
  On 21 March 2009, a day after US President Barack Obama advocated a "new beginning" in diplomatic relations between the two countries, Khamenei said a change of US "words" was not enough and added: "We will watch and we will judge (the new US administration) ... You change, our behavior will change." He rejected US foreign policy since the Islamic revolution, insisted the United States is "hated in the world" and should end its interference in other countries.
  Khamenei criticized the NATO-led military intervention in Libya. On 21 March 2011, Khamenei accused the West of having "come after Libyan oil". He also stressed that "Iran utterly condemns the behaviour of the Libyan government against its people, the killings and pressure on people, and the bombing of its cities... but it (also) condemns the military action in Libya". Khamenei stated that he support sending mediators rather than bombing the country.
  In June 2011, Khamenei accused the United States government of terrorism and rejected the American definition of terrorism; he was quoted as saying, "The U.S. and the European governments that follow it describe Palestinian combatant groups who fight for the liberation of their land as terrorists."
  In June 2012, Khamenei warned Western governments that the mounting sanctions on the country will only deepen the Iranians' hatred of the West.
  In October 2014, Khamenei said the U.S. and the U.K. created ISIS as a tool to fight Iran and "create insecurity" in the region.
  On 19 July 2015, while speaking at a mosque in Tehran, Khamenei said to his supporters that the policies of the United States in the region were "180 degrees" opposed to Iran's political and religious movement. The speech was punctuated by chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel". Khamenei said in regards to the 2015 nuclear deal that "Even after this deal our policy towards the arrogant U.S. will not change." U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that if the comments reflected policy, it was "very disturbing", and "very troubling".
  In March 2020, Khamenei warned against a United States offer of aid to fight the coronavirus disease on the grounds that it could be a way to hurt Iran by further spreading the disease. He also suggested the US had developed a special variety of the virus “based on Iranian genetic information they have gathered”, although he provided no evidence for the theory. Khamenei explained, “There are enemies who are demons, and there are enemies who are humans, and they help one another."
caption: Khamenei meeting with his counterpart, China's paramount leader Xi Jinping, 23 January 2016
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