Iran will not negotiate with US beyond nuclear talks: Khamenei

Iran's supreme leader says we negotiated with US on nuclear issue for specific reasons

DUBAI: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran will not negotiate with the United States on any issue after the landmark nuclear deal with world powers in July, according to his official website on Wednesday.

"We negotiated with the US on the nuclear issue for specific reasons. (The Americans) behaved well in the talks, but we didn't and we won't allow negotiation with the Americans on other issues." Ayatollah Khamenei was quoted as saying.

On July 14 this year, Iran and six major world powers reached a nuclear deal, capping more than a decade of negotiations with an agreement that could transform the Middle East.

Reaching the agreement did not bury the controversy of one of the most bitterly contested diplomatic issues of the day: the European Union called it a “sign of hope for the entire world”, while Israel called it an “historic surrender”.

While the main negotiations were between the United States and Iran, the four other UN Security Council permanent members, Britain, China, France and Russia, were also parties to the deal, as was Germany.