Special to WorldTribune.com

Despite all of President Barack Obama’s overtures and the emerging nuclear deal, the United States and Iran will remain enemies, a top Iranian military commander said.

Iranian Ground Force Commander Brig. Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said “the U.S. might arrive at some agreements with us within the framework of the Group 5+1 (the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany), but we should never hold a positive view over the enemy,” according to Iran’s Fars News Agency.

“Our enmity with them is over the principles and is rooted because we are after the truth and nations’ freedom, but they seek exploiting nations and putting them in chains,” Pourdastan added.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on July 5 that an agreement was possible this week if Iran was willing to make the “hard choices” necessary, but if not, the United States was ready to walk away from the negotiations.

An Iranian official told the semi-official Tasnim news agency that the negotiations could stretch into July 9. Kerry said the goal remains the July 7 deadline, which the negotiators set after missing a June 30 deadline.

Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif met on July 5 in an attempt to resolve remaining differences, including how and when to lift UN sanctions and what advanced research and development Teheran may pursue.

  Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, Iranian commander: U.S. is still our enemy despite nuclear deal, Javad Zarif, John Kerry, WorldTribune.com