Khamenei's message comes a day after the United States took steps to tighten economic sanctions on Iran.
It is Mr Khamenei, not the president, who ultimately calls the shots in foreign policy, including nuclear matters.
If Mr. Khamenei's speech last month before an audience of Iranian women was any indication, the answer is no.
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In Washington, analyst Karim Sadjadpour is not certain that Khamenei will allow that.
No doubt Mr Khamenei remembers the shah's disastrous attempts at appeasement in 1979.
Mr. Khamenei, Iran's most powerful religious and military authority, also is positioned to frustrate an array of Obama administration foreign-policy initiatives.
U.S. officials are doubtful of any major breakthrough in Kazakhstan, in part because of Mr. Khamenei's fixation on the June elections.
Mr. Khamenei, however, is believed to have grown wary of the outspoken Iranian president, whose second and final term is ending.
For instance, the Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, has argued that Mr Ahmadinejad, not Mr Khamenei, has ultimate authority in Iran.
However, long-term tensions between Mr Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have tainted Mr Rahim-Mashaei's reputation among some conservative elements.
Moussavi is a member of Iran's Expediency Council, which mediates between the parliament and the non-elected Guardian Council led by Ayatollah Khamenei.
Mr. Khamenei, Iran's most powerful religious and military authority, also is positioned to frustrate an array of Obama administration foreign policy initiatives.
Mr. Ahmadinejad has led an unprecedented behind-the-scenes challenge to the supreme leader, while Mr. Khamenei has worked steadily to clip his wings.
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But only two days before the event, it was announced that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would make the opening address.
U.S. and European officials have worried Mr. Khamenei might challenge Israel and the U.S. over the nuclear issue to consolidate his political position.
In Jerusalem, Mr. Obama said he believed Iran would need a year to make a nuclear weapon if Mr. Khamenei made the political decision.
Again, it is more than possible that Khamenei will move to crush the dissidents or successfully buy enough of them off to subvert them.
But Khamenei added that the Islamic establishment and people "will never give in to coercive demands with regards to Iran's presidential elections, " Press TV said.
With Mr Ahmadinejad set for a testy relationship with the new parliament, Ayatollah Khamenei may find it even easier to bend policy to his will.
Ayatollah Khamenei also lashed out at Western governments in his address.
Velayati has deferred to Khamenei on any possible overtures to the U.S. But Qalibaf and others suggest they would urge the leadership to remain open for direct talks.
However, unlike Ayatollah Khamenei in neighboring Iran, Sistani is a leader of the "quietist" school of Shiite thought, which believes that clerics should not directly participate in politics.
What this means is that the Obama administration - now working through congressional proxies - is still trying to cut a deal with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ali Khamenei.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, refused to see them.
Obama's letter to Khamenei is in keeping with his publicly stated aim of engagement with Iran and his New Year's message in which he described a new way forward.
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Several clerics still outrank Mr Khamenei in the Shia hierarchy, and many more are troubled by the promotion of someone of only fairly senior standing to the top theocratic job.
There is no sign yet that Western pressure has convinced Mr Khamenei to abandon his plans, vociferously endorsed by Mr Ahmadinejad, for Iran to become a big producer of nuclear fuel.
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Karim Sadjapour, an analyst for the International Crisis Group, says Khamenei's action put more power in the hands of Iran's former president, Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, whom Ahmadinejad defeated in last June's election.
Mr Rafsanjani had been expected to put up a fight when Mr Khamenei tries, as he probably will, to install his own nominee as president in elections that are due next spring.
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For now, he seems also to have the backing of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a cleric anointed by the late Ayatollah Khomeini, the founding father of a revolutionary theocratic Iran.
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