TEHRAN – Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the Assembly of Experts and the Guardian Council, has lauded Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for his remarks during a recent meeting with Japan’s prime minister, saying the Leader’s remarks disgraced the U.S. government.

“As the respected representatives said in their appreciative statement, the Leader of the Revolution’s behavior in meeting with the Japanese prime minister was based on three principles, including dignity, wisdom and expediency,” Ayatollah Jannati said on Wednesday, the Mehr news agency reported.

In an open letter to the Leader a day earlier, 210 members of parliament described Ayatollah Khamenei’s stance as a “display of dignity, wisdom and expediency.”

Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to Tehran for the first time to meet Ayatollah Khamenei and President Rouhani. Abe said he was carrying a message from U.S. President Donald Trump.

In response, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “We have no doubts about your goodwill and seriousness, but with regard to what you relayed from the U.S. president, I see no merit in Trump as a person to deserve the exchange of any messages, and I do not have any answer for him and will not give him any either.”

The Leader said Iran has “no trust” in the United States and will not at all “repeat the bitter experience” from the negotiations that led to the conclusion of a 2015 nuclear deal, which Washington later ditched.

MH/PA