Ayatollah Khamenei

The enemies have been attacking us in vain for nearly 40 years: Ayatollah Khamenei

The following is the full text of the speech delivered on September 28, 2016 by Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, at Shahid Sattari University on the occasion of the graduation ceremony of a number of officers of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army.

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, and peace and greetings be upon our Master Muhammad and upon his immaculate household

I would like to congratulate all you dear youth and promising individuals for the future of the country – both the graduates who have formally entered the arena of the Armed Forces and the Islamic Republic of Iran Army, and the new arrivals and this year’s epaulet receivers who have celebrated the beginning of their auspicious movement today. As you said and as we heard in your oath, this is a path that has a happy ending. One of the best examples of a happy-ending path is really the path that you have chosen.

I deem it necessary to thank the commanders in the academies of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army. Thankfully these academies have developed. In the beginning of the Revolution, we only had one military academy, but today several academies are busy working and training youth in different areas. I thank the commanders in these academies and the commanders in the triple forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army. I also thank the professors – particularly the honorable professors who teach in these classes – and the honorable clergy who make efforts in the area of the religious training of these youth and who participate in a warm and friendly manner in their camps, in their classes and in their friendly gatherings. I thank all of you and I congratulate you.

The path that you dear youth of ours have chosen in the present time is a blessed path. By choosing this path, you have produced a source of wealth for your country. You youth are the great wealth of the country in the real sense of the word. For every country, no source of wealth and no resource is more valuable than competent, pious, liberated and dignified manpower. And today, you are the embodiment of this great blessing and this great source of wealth. You should appreciate the value of this.

Today’s dear youth did not witness the imposed war. All or most of you dear youth who are present in today’s arena are individuals who were born after the war came to an end. The Sacred Defense Era was an astonishing era. It was an important era. It was the era of a difficult test. It is during tests that great and hard-working individuals reveal their true nature. It is then that one’s spirit shows itself. During the Sacred Defense Era, the spirit of the Islamic Republic of Iran revealed itself.

The Islamic Republic of Iran Army managed to accomplish brilliant and great tasks in different areas and with its various elements. You have only heard the name of the Sacred Defense Era. One of the very necessary tasks in these academies and in the general environment of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army – particularly in the environment of our Armed Forces – is increasing familiarity with the Sacred Defense Era. The Sacred Defense Era was not an ordinary era. It was not a normal era.

It is many years now that the Armed Forces have gained a feeling of tranquility and anticipation for the day of destiny. The day of destiny is a day when their country, their nation, their borders and their identity will become subject to attack. It is on that day that the Armed Forces go to the front lines of defense and put themselves to test. During the Sacred Defense Era, everything that belonged to the country became subject to attack. Not only the borders of the country, but the national identity of the country, the Islamic government of the country, the great Revolution of the people of Iran and the numerous values that these great people had placed within their sight were also attacked during the Sacred Defense Era.

In that era, it was not only the Ba’athist regime of Saddam that had confronted us, rather it was a general and international war against the people of Iran. NATO helped Saddam, so did America and the Soviet Union of those days. Moreover, the Arab reactionary system deluged their financial and monetary help and their oil revenues towards them like a flood.

As for their propaganda, it belonged and continues to belong to the Zionists. It used to work, day and night, against the Islamic Republic of Iran and in favor of them and it did so throughout the world. In that great spectacle and in that grave apocalypse, the great power of the people of Iran, the power of faith, the power of resistance, the power of trust in God, the power of reliance on “Ruhullah” [God’s spirit] and above all, the power of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran staged an uprising. “Qiamullah” [God’s uprising] means this: “I admonish you on one point: that you rise up for Allah in pairs or singly” [The Holy Quran, 34: 46]. They staged qiamullah, they entered the arena, and they offered their lives, their power and their capabilities.

My dear ones, my dear youth, they are the generation that appeared before you. They are individuals whom you have followed. You are the inheritors of their achievements. On that day, the army was not so dear in the eyes of the people. Those who made those achievements were the Sayyaads [Shahid Sayyaad Shirazi], the Babais [Shahid Babai], the great personalities in the Islamic Republic of Iran Army with their sacrifices, and the sardars and amirs who utilized all their power in the arenas of war in order to confront the enemy. It was they who brought about this popularity for the Islamic Republic of Iran Army. I witnessed those efforts up close. I saw what they did, how they laid down their lives and how they utilized all their power.

My dear ones, you should equip yourselves. You should prepare yourselves, including preparedness in scientific and technical areas, preparedness in terms of organization and discipline, and preparedness in terms of faith, ideology and spirituality. This is the source of support for all other forms of preparedness. You should make your hearts close to God on this path. Your country is a large, important and magnificent country. Your people are an intelligent, courageous and powerful people. This is not [only] what I am saying. Today, the whole world – those who are familiar with the present conditions and those who are willing to speak – is saying this publicly. Even the enemies, who are not willing to acknowledge this openly, believe in this in their hearts. Their belief and opinion is revealed in many cases and we have heard it.

Because of its independence, its faith, its belief in Islam and in the authority of God’s religion on earth and in society, and the lofty values that it has, this country is faced with a large enemy front which is constantly busy working against it. Of course, it is nearly 40 years now that they have been busy attacking and failing, without any doubt. They have been failing until today and from now on too, they will keep failing, God willing.

You should play your part in frustrating the enemy in the real sense of the word. Therefore, you should build yourselves up. I seriously ask the honorable professors and the honorable clergy - who are in touch with these pure hearts and with these dear youth – to utilize all their power so that they can transfer their experiences and their spiritual, scientific and psychological preparedness to these dear youth. By Allah’s favor and grace, great men will be made of you in the future and by Allah’s favor, the country will be proud of you if you work hard.

I hope that Allah the Exalted will make all of you successful and I hope that by Allah’s favor, your condition in the future will be much better than your condition in the present time and so shall it be, God willing. The condition of our country in the future will be much better and more advanced than its condition in the present time.

The blessed name of the Imam of the Age (may our souls be sacrificed for his sake) is a source of blessing for our statements and for our meeting. I hope that we will benefit from the prayers of that great Imam (a.s.) and I hope that our dear martyrs and our magnanimous Imam (r.a.) will be pleased with us and with our performance.

Greetings be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings

 

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