Burning israeli flag

Imam Khamenei's talks with an Islamic country’s leader about normalizing ties with Israel

During the time of my presidency, I went to a Muslim country that claimed to be fighting against Israel and I met with the head of that country. Previously, he had said that they were willing to meet and establish relations with Israeli politicians. I said to him, “What is this statement that has been ascribed to you? He looked at his deputy and began laughing. I said to myself, “Perhaps, they have an important answer.” Then, he said that this was a tactic. I said, “Wow, this is a tactic that makes you drift away from the main goals. The basis of your work was to impose sanctions on Israel. You wanted to act in a way that Israel does not become the common coin in the Arab and Islamic environment. However, as a tactic, you are acting in the exact opposite manner.” Sometimes, some people change the main strategy with the pretext that we have changed our tactic and our method. You should take care not to let this happen. Those who act like this are taking the wrong course of action.

May 31, 2005