TEHRAN – It is insane to negotiate with those who break their promises, said Tehran Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, referring to the idea of talks between Tehran and Washington after the latter ditched the 2015 nuclear pact.

“As our president has said, we are not insane to negotiate with the Americans,” Khatami told worshippers in Tehran on Friday. “As the supreme leader has said, there will be no negotiations with the U.S., and both the authorities and the people agree on this.”

“Negotiation under pressure is surrender and the Iranian nation will never tolerate such disgrace,” he added.

Khatami noted that the U.S. and its president, Donald Trump, are in need of bringing Iran to the negotiating table “but given the approach adopted by the U.S. and Trump, they’re going to have to take this dream to their grave.”

The U.S., under Trump, has occasionally shown its willingness to hold talks with Tehran, while abandoning the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran and reimposing sanctions that the agreement had rescinded in order to put enormous new pressure on Iran’s economy.

The idea of talks with Trump’s America has been firmly rejected by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in critical issues.

Also on Tuesday, President Hassan Rouhani ruled out the possibility of talks with Washington, saying the United States must lift all its cruel sanctions against Iran and begin respecting the nation’s rights as a “first step” towards dialogue.

He stressed that the Islamic Republic will not engage in any negotiations for the mere sake of photo ops.

“We seek to resolve issues and problems in a rational way but we are not after photo ops. For anyone wanting to take a picture with Hassan Rouhani, this is not possible” unless that party chooses to set aside all the oppressive sanctions and respect the Iranian nation’s rights, the president said.

During his Friday sermon, Ayatollah Khatami also pointed out that Trump had said during his 2016 campaign trail that Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration created Daesh (ISIL).

“They created Taliban as well and all terrorist groups are somehow linked to them,” Khatami said.

“Interestingly, they speak of fighting terrorism,” he added.

MH/