"The official who has affection for the United States and thinks that we cannot progress without the approval of the United States will not be a good partner," Khamenei said, in an apparent attack on reformists, who seek a certain opening of Iran.
The speech given by Iran's highest political and religious authority on the occasion of an Islamic holiday was accompanied by shouts of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" for the audience, according to the French agency AFP.
Khamenei said that participation in elections is "one of the things that makes the Islamic Republic defeat its enemies."
"When turnout is low in an election, enemies' censure increases, but when turnout is high, enemies bite their tongues," he said.
The Islamic Republic regime attaches great importance to participation in elections as a sign of legitimacy and popular support, but voter turnout has declined in recent years.
March's parliamentary elections saw a turnout of 41% of voters, the lowest rate in the last 45 years in Iran, in a context of popular apathy in the face of the poor economic situation and social repression.
Conservative Mohamad Baqer Qalibaf, ultraconservative Saeed Jalili and reformist Masoud Pezeshkian are the three main candidates to succeed President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May.
The hyper-nationalist Jalili leads the polls together with Pezeshkian, who called for improved relations with the West and whose team includes Mohamed Yavad Zarif, former Minister of Foreign Affairs under former President Hasan Rouhani (2013-2021).
Rouhani and Zarif signed the 2015 nuclear deal that limited Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions imposed by the United States and five other countries.
The United States unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018, by decision of then President Donald Trump (2017-2021), and, since then, Tehran has constantly accelerated its nuclear program.
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