Marking the 40th anniversary of the U.S. embassy takeover in Tehran, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei stressed that “the U.S. has always been an enemy of the Iranian nation... the dispute between the Iranian nation and the U.S. government dates back to the 1953 coup d’état, and before that, when they imposed a corrupt puppet regime on the Iranian nation”. Khamenei went on to maintain that “since 1979... the U.S. has carried out all the hostile actions it knew against the Iranian people, including coups, ethnic provocations, arousing separatism, sanctions, sieges, etc”, adding that “our most important response to the plots of the U.S. was to block the political re-infiltration of the country by the U.S.”. He added that “avoiding negotiations is one of the ways to block American infiltration”. “This prohibition on negotiations is based on a firm logic”, said Khamenei, contending that “they would have claimed to have forced us to our knees, and would not have given away a single point… negotiating with the U.S. will not solve any problems”.