U.S. Wrong About Moderates, Iran Says : There Are None in Country’s Leadership, Khamenei Declares

Two days after the White House conceded it didn’t know which “side” it was talking to in Tehran, Iranian President Ali Khamenei said today the United States was wrong to believe there are moderate leaders in Iran with whom it could resume contacts.

But he declared in a speech broadcast by Tehran Radio, monitored in Nicosia, that Iran’s attitude to the United States could change if Americans tried to “win the hearts of the nation” by ending their “hostility, their enmity and their hatred.”

“Gradually, in the course of many years, it is possible that the views of the people concerning the leaders of the American regime might change.

“However, this nation today . . . continues decisively, strongly and realistically to regard America as the Great Satan and as its greatest enemy,” Khamenei said.

President Reagan said in November that he had opened contacts with moderate elements in the Tehran leadership in an effort to resume ties with Iran, severed since November, 1979.

Khamenei was the first Iranian leader to comment on the American claim that there is what could be considered a moderate faction in revolutionary Iran.

In recent days, political analysts inside and outside the U.S. Administration have questioned President Reagan’s assertions that a moderate element exists in Tehran with which the United States could deal. The White House on Monday said it was just a problem of “semantics” and suggested it was unimportant.

Khamenei said even if there were moderate elements within the Iranian leadership who supported ties with the United States, the Iranian people would not have accepted resumed links at this time.

“Would the people have ever allowed such a thing? Would this nation permit such a thing?” he declared.

Khamenei has been portrayed as one of the top five leaders in Iran who has favored some form of contact with the United States.

The others are Parliament Speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani, Supreme Court Judge Ayatollah Abdulkarim Moussavi Ardabili, Prime Minister Hussein Moussavi and Khomeini’s son, Ahmad.

“There are no moderates among the officials of our country,” he said at a rally in Tehran marking the eighth anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

“On the whole, there are no hawks and doves and moderates. The path is only one path. It is the path of Islam, the line of the Imam.”