Iran condemns U.S. arrogance

TEHRAN, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Interim Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani told followers in Tehran the "arrogant" United States was a failure.

"The U.S. arrogant power is a fiasco," the 91-year-old cleric said. "That's not limited to the U.S. God will disgrace all the arrogant powers once in the future."

Kashani told congregants at Tehran University he condemned the U.S. policy of aggression in the region, noting the world was no longer tolerant of U.S. violations of human rights in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

"Nations are no longer willing to accept false claims of global arrogance," the ayatollah said.

He criticized U.S. policy toward the controversial Iranian nuclear program, a longtime central theme of messages from the Islamic Republic.

"(Washington) has taken a hostile stand against Iran's nuclear energy, which is a scientific, technological and academic and not a military subject," he said. "The method is futile."

His criticisms follow earlier statements from Iranian Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, who spoke out against U.S. military "adventurism" on the heels of a U.S. military incursion into Syria during the weekend.