Imam Khamenei: The Sacred Defense Proved to The World That the Iranian People Won’t Surrender

By Staff, Agencies

Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei received on the eve of Sacred Defense Week, a number of the commanders and veterans from the Sacred Defense along with the families of martyrs in the Imam Khomeini Hussainiyah in Tehran.

Other Sacred Defense veterans who live in various parts of the country also joined this meeting via teleconferencing from centers in the various provinces.

Imam Khamenei said on Wednesday that the victory of the Islamic Revolution was not an impermanent political failure for the United States but a threat to the empire of the domineering system, stressing that “The Sacred Defense proved the fact that protecting the country and [achieving] deterrence can be achieved through resistance, not surrender.”

His Eminence underlined that the resistance raised the morale and self-confidence of the people and, at the same time, taught the enemy to reconsider its calculations and include the Iranian nation’s power and resistance.

“The military invasion against the country after the [Islamic] Revolution was not unexpected. It is true that Saddam launched the attack, but behind Saddam was global arrogance,” he said.

“The Sacred Defense is an exciting, eventful and fruitful juncture. The era of Sacred Defense is one of the events that have an effect on our yesterday, today and tomorrow,” he said. “Therefore, the veterans [of the war] should be given attention and respect.”

According to the Imam Khamenei, the Iranian nation had a new message for the world during the era of the Islamic Revolution and the imperialist countries did not want anyone to hear that message.

“They wanted to smother the voice of the Iranian nation in the throat,” he said. “They wanted to show that if anyone rises against the US, they will be suppressed.”

Imam Khamenei also said that the enemies were angry because of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which “was not in line with the policies of Western and Eastern powers.”

He recalled that all countries in that era were either pro-West or pro-East and no independent nation existed at the time.

“It was not at all tolerable for a country outside of this [bipolar] system to come and speak its mind. It was unbearable for them that a nation is not afraid of America,” the Leader of the Islamic Revolution went on to say.

Imam Khamenei also noted that the revolution brought about events in the world that “perhaps we were not aware of all of its dimensions at that time, but they knew what had happened.”

His Eminence further underlined that the great power of the Islamic Revolution, the leadership of the late Imam Khomeini, and the distinct characteristics of the Iranian nation turned the threat of war into an opportunity.

Another objective of the domineering system was to bring the Iranian nation to their knees, subvert the Islamic Republic, and change the fate of the Iranian nation, Imam Khamenei said, adding that their ultimate goal was to make the Iranian nation a lesson for other nations and destroy the resistance.