Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Iran’s supreme leader has said that his country’s struggle will only end when it defeats U.S.-led oppression.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told members of parliament in Tehran that Iran must be armed and ‘have the capability to defend itself’ in a ‘world full of thieves’.

His comments came as negotiations with the international community over Iran’s nuclear programme ran into a stalemate, with Tehran saying world powers were ‘demanding too much’.

‘Battle and jihad are endless because evil and its front continue to exist,’ Khamenei told MPs, according to a translation by U.S. news site The Daily Caller.

‘This battle will only end when the society can get rid of the oppressors’ front with America at the head of it, which has expanded its claws on human mind, body and thought.

‘This requires a difficult and lengthy struggle and need for great strides.’

The Daily Caller’s translation of a Fars News Agency report is by a reporter pseudonymously bylined Reza Khalili, who claims to be a former CIA agent in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

Khamenei’s address to Parliament on Sunday continued with veiled references to the actions of the West and Arab states as he justified Iran’s continued defiance of international sanctions against its nuclear programme.

‘Logic and reason command that for Iran, in order to pass through a region full of pirates, needs to arm itself and must have the capability to defend itself,’ he said.