Ayatollah Khamenei the Leader of the Islamic Revolution met Monday morning with the officials in charge of hajj affairs. At the meeting, His Eminence said that the enemy is making efforts to foment discord and to confront the wave of Islamic Awakening. He added that hajj is a very valuable opportunity to establish a relationship with the Islamic Ummah and to reap the spiritual benefits.Ayatollah Khamenei said that hajj is one of the most important elements behind the success of Islam. He further described hajj as a great divine celebration which takes place at the center of glory, power and magnificence. "Regarding the general and international dimension of hajj, it is necessary to pay serious attention to solidarity and strengthening Islamic bonds without taking nationalities, ethnicities and denominations into consideration. This opportunity should be used to make hearts get closer to one another."
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution stressed that Muslims are a unified entity and added: "Iranian pilgrims should take part in hajj ceremonies with this general and global outlook and they should let the nations that have recently carried out a revolution benefit from their thirty years of experience in fighting the arrogant powers and the enemies."
His Eminence called on hajj pilgrims to prepare themselves spiritually before taking part in hajj ceremonies and added: "With their behavior during hajj, Iranian pilgrims should make the world hold the Iranian nation and the Islamic Republic of Iran in high regard."
Elsewhere in his statements, Ayatollah Khamenei referred to the recent economic corruption and reminded government officials to combat economic corruption in a decisive way. "Government officials welcomed confronting economic corruption, but if they had acted on my recommendations, we would never have had events like the recent banking embezzlement."
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution stressed that it is necessary to prevent corruption from becoming deep-rooted and added that it becomes very difficult to uproot corruption once it becomes deep-rooted. He assured the people that the three branches of government are determined to confront the recent event and to prevent similar events and said that government officials in the executive, legislative and judiciary branches are doing their duty."
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution said that it inadvisable to create uproar which may prompt others to take advantage of this issue. However, he assured the people that government officials will follow up the issue until the end and that they will cut off the treacherous hands.
His Eminence emphatically urged the judiciary to keep the people updated about the case and stressed: "The judiciary system must not have mercy on wrong-doers, vandals and corrupt individuals."
Iran's judiciary is investigating the recent large embezzlement case and has issued arrest warrants for a number of suspects. Also a number of bank managers have been fired.
Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei Iran's Prosecutor General, who has been put in charge of the embezzlement case by the Judiciary Chief, has announced that the case is being investigated swiftly and decisively. He has also said that the culprits will be severely punished.
Iran's Judiciary Chief Sadeq Larijani has stressed that the judiciary system will follow up the issue decisively. He has also said that the judiciary has been investigating the embezzlement case for almost two months.