Khamenei’s new speech at the gathering of Iranian students in Tehran on Sunday raises more questions about his real intentions on nuclear negotiation with p5+1. On the surface, he is supporting the negotiation and tries to curb the hard-liners’ campaign against governments: “Nobody should weaken or insult them, or regard them as compromising,” Referring to the nuclear negotiation team led by Javad Zarif.

But in the meantime, he slammed US and expressed skepticism on the final result of negotiations. Khamenei called the US “the most hated power in the world,” and said “I am not optimistic about the ongoing negotiations, because it is not clear whether they would bring about the results expected by our nation. My advice to our diplomats is to be vigilant so that the deceptive smile of the enemy does not lead you to make mistake and error.”

Some analysts in Iran believe that the Supreme Leader’s speech shows that he is managing a calculated plan: he tries to appear as the supporter of nuclear negotiations and  not to be blamed for the future failure of talks that could bring more sanctions and more hardship for Iranians.

At the same time, Khamenei has unleashed his entourage to advance the anti-US and anti-rendition campaign to limit the government’s ability to offer meaningful concessions during the negotiations and therefore, push the talks to an impasse. In this case, the hardliners will blame US for the failure and criticize the government for being naive.