The following is the full text of the speech delivered on June 15, 2006 by Ayatollah Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, in a meeting with officials of Atomic Energy Organization and nuclear experts.
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Today was a very sweet and memorable day for me and I will not forget this meeting with you dear youth of this country who have accomplished a very important and valuable feat with your great determination. I see and feel that you decide to continue this glorious path. For me, this is the sweetest thing that can happen in this regard.
It is very important for a country to correctly identify its real and basic needs and to decide to meet these needs. Second, it is very important for it to have the tools to meet these needs. Primarily, these tools are wisdom and manpower. This is very important and fateful for a country. This builds civilizations. This is the difference between those countries that can determine their own fate and the fate of part of the world, and those countries that waver and tremble - like a thin feather - in different directions amid waves of global polices. The main key is science and - accordingly - technology. The country and people that decide to determine their own fate and achieve happiness should find this key.
In the speech that I delivered in Mashhad in the beginning of the year - it was on the occasion of "The Year of the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.)" - I narrated a short hadith from the Commander of the Faithful (a.s.): "Knowledge is power. Anybody who has knowledge will be able to dominate those around him. Anybody who fails to gain knowledge will be ruled". Knowledge is power. It is either of these two conditions mentioned in this hadith.
Anyone who acquires knowledge can be powerful and show off their power. Anyone who fails to do this will be subject to this show-off of power. The greatest act of betrayal which has been committed against our country during the past 150, 200 years - when knowledge was developing in the world on a daily basis - was that they did not allow our people or they did not prepare the ground for them to find their true position in the world of knowledge. This happened despite the fact that our people were a talented people who benefited from individuals like Ibn Sina, Farabi and Razi in their history. You can say that they did not allow us - this is a pessimistic outlook - or you can say that they did not prepare the ground. This is the least that they did and this is an optimistic outlook.
During Qajar and Pahlavi eras, they committed the great sin of refusing to prepare the ground. When the ground is not prepared, the talent that exists in our people and our youth will take one of the following two, three paths: one is that their talents will not be displayed at all. No matter how physically strong you are and no matter how talented your body is for physical growth, when you do not exercise and move your muscles, you will not grow and your talent will be wasted and buried.
The second path is: someone who is talented and who sees that there is no way for their talent to develop will go abroad. This is the same as brain drain which happens in the course of many years and it is not confined to recent years. This is the disaster of our past history. Talented and competent individuals went to a corner of the world and engaged in work. The third path is: their talent will be used in the wrong way. This is because the arena has not been opened for the cultivation of talents.
Today, this task has been carried out in Iran. Today, the arena is open in our country for cultivating talents, achieving scientific growth and acquiring technical and technological expertise. You are among the best examples of those people who have managed to do this. In today's exhibition - which is, in fact, a miniature of the great feats that you have accomplished - I saw astonishing cases. They explained to me that our young scientists - in fact, we should say, our young artists - have managed to carry out a great task and accomplish an astonishing feat by relying on their minds and experience and without having any models at their disposal.
We are witnessing this in many cases. In your group too, we can see very complex and detailed subtleties. We can see the power of management that a complex and well-connected group enjoys. This is very important. Managing large and complex groups and leading them simultaneously is among very great tasks. We can see this in different parts of your organization.
This is what I think: for our people, there is no Eid which is greater than the one when they feel that their youth are self-confident, that they believe in their capability to accomplish great feats and that they are determined to carry out great tasks. Dear ones, you should carry out this task.
This arena is a vast arena. Mr. Aghazadeh explained the significance of this advanced and leading technology and its influence on the lives of our people and on the future. You know better than me how important this industry is for our country.
Imagine that you have a fertile piece of land in which a bubbling spring flows. You can water and keep alive the entire land with this spring which constantly bubbles and which may increase in amount. Then, they come to you and say, "You should block this spring with asphalt and in return, we will give you a three-inch pipe so that you can water your farm". The uproar and political hullabaloo that they have created is like this. This is what the Europeans say. Unfortunately, they say this with the support of the Atomic Energy Agency and the Americans.
They say, "You should destroy this bubbling spring of human talents so that we give you a three-inch pipe. But whenever we want, we will block this pipe and whenever we want, we will sell this water to you in exchange for your national pride and dignity". This is what they mean. Which person gives in to this bullying? We will not give in to this bullying. We regard the continuation and development of this movement as one of our main goals.
You are the people who do the work. Thankfully, you have determination, talent and enthusiasm. And the source of support for your movement is faith. You should know that the scientific key that - as I said - can transform a people is achieved, preserved and employed with faith. Strong faith can play such a role. With faith, all tasks are carried out more easily than without faith. Thankfully, you have faith, firm motivation, determination and willpower, and the talent and capability to think. You should carry out this task. This task should move forward.
Today, fourth-generation and fifth-generation centrifuges have been produced in the world. By Allah's favor, you will manage to produce better ones and move forward. It is possible that there are better ways and better shortcuts for producing these substances - whether mineral substances, UF6 or their enrichment - and you can discover these ways. I have no doubts that you can carry out your tasks and that you can do the work in a faster, easier and better way.
I should add that every move that you make and every moment of your work - which is done with such a motivation and in this direction - will be followed by a divine and spiritual reward, one that has no equivalent in material rewards. That is to say, no material value and reward can match the divine reward which is recorded in your performance sheet. First, this is because the task is valuable in itself and second, it is because you are preparing the ground for the independence and perpetual dignity of a people.
I will tell you that utilizing nuclear energy and achieving nuclear technology in our country is more important than discovering and extracting oil - the day when it was extracted in our country for the first time. Notice how important oil is in the fate of a country. Discovering and extracting oil means extracting a substance from under the ground and wasting it in one sense. The disaster that we are bringing to oil today is a waste of this substance. Otherwise, the material and non-material advantages of using this substance in the right way can be thousands of times more than what we have today.
But what you are doing means extracting the hidden truth in one's mind, which is invisible to us in this world. You discover this truth. This is the way all advanced sciences are discovered in the world. We do not see many truths in the world, but someone discovers them and utilizes them for the good of humanity. You do this and the value of your work is much more than discovering, extracting and utilizing oil and the oil industry. Therefore, your work makes history.
For this reason, every moment of your work - when it is done with this great motivation and attention - will be rewarded by God. This divine reward is superior to all the encouragements and praise that we offer and to all material equivalents. You should appreciate the value of your work. During, before and after your work, you should always remember that Allah the Exalted sees what you are doing and that God's great angels will record your work as a good deed.
I am happy that I met you today, that I listened to your reports and that I took a look at your work. I am happy because of the good meeting that was held in this place and I hope that God will bestow success on you. Send my greetings to other friends and colleagues in Isfahan, Natanz and other places. I hope that by Allah's favor, your work, your efforts and your services will benefit from the attention of the Imam of the Age (may our souls be sacrificed for his sake).
Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings