As he has in the past, Mr. Zarif said Iran was eager to work with its neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, to resolve regional issues, particularly the war in Syria. “I think our Saudi neighbors need to realize that confrontation is in the interest of nobody,” he said. “Iran is there to work with you. Iran does not want to exclude anyone from the region. There is no need to engage in a confrontation.”

Despite Mr. Zarif’s conciliatory language, Iran and Saudi Arabia are engaged in a bitter sectarian proxy war in Syria, with Tehran backing President Bashar al-Assad and Riyadh propping up the rebel forces opposing him.

In remarks to election officials that were published on his website, Khamenei.ir, Ayatollah Khamenei also weighed in on a dispute that has the potential to shape Iran’s political course for the next several years. He voiced strong support for a 12-member vetting committee that is said to have disqualified nearly all reformist candidates in coming elections for the Majlis, or Parliament, and for the Assembly of Experts, a council that in the future will elect his successor.

The vetting committee, the Guardian Council, which has been severely criticized by the reform camp, has not publicly explained its actions. In his remarks, Ayatollah Khamenei said that mistakes could be made but that they “don’t justify attacks on legal entities.” If upheld, the bar on reformist candidates would mean that President Hassan Rouhani, who calls himself a moderate, will in all likelihood confront a hostile Parliament if he tries to introduce measures that he has promised to expand personal freedoms.

Ayatollah Khamenei went even further, making it clear that the reformists faced an uphill battle to exert any influence in the immediate future.