Ayatollah Khamenei Raps Hostage Talks : He Disagrees With Rafsanjani’s Vow to Help Free Them

Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said today that Iran will never hold talks with the United States. Hours earlier, Iran had renewed an offer to help free Western hostages in Lebanon.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency, monitored here, reported in a commentary late Sunday that Tehran was “ready to use its maximum influence for the release of all hostages” if the United States released Iranian assets worth billions of dollars it froze 10 years ago.

But Tehran Radio, also monitored in Cyprus, quoted Khamenei today as saying no Iranian leader will negotiate with the United States.

“Next to the usurper regime ruling over occupied Palestine, you are the most cursed government in the eyes of the Iranian people. No one in the Islamic republic will hold talks with you,” the radio quoted Khamenei as telling U.S. leaders.

Khamenei has been seen as a so-called moderate in Iran, interested in restoring the country’s ties with the West. His comments underlined the divisions in Tehran over whether Iran should help free the Western hostages in Lebanon.

“In Lebanon, America commits the greatest atrocities and encourages its puppet Israel in kidnaping and hostage-taking,” Khamenei said, referring to Israel’s abduction July 28 of Sheik Abdul Karim Obeid, a Shiite Muslim clergyman.

Khamenei did not specifically mention the Westerners held hostage. Most are held by pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim fundamentalists.

Khamenei was elected Iran’s religious leader to succeed the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who died June 3. At that time, he was clearly allied with Parliament Speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani, the leader of Tehran’s so-called pragmatists who favor rebuilding bridges with the West.

Rafsanjani, who was elected Iran’s president, has made clear in recent days that dialogue with the United States on freeing the hostages is possible. He was behind the clandestine arms-for-hostages deal with the United States in 1985-86, during which three American hostages were freed.

But Rafsanjani’s radical rivals in Tehran, led by Interior Minister Ali Akbar Mohtashemi, have said they oppose any dealings with the United States.