In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
The grievous Qana tragedy has filled our hearts with agony and distress and has made us and other Muslim nations and all the broad-minded people throughout the world mournful and indignant.
For what sin were those innocent children, with those feeble and afflicted bodies and those small and frightened hearts, killed? Why should the burning hearts of their parents be subjected to this tremendous pain by the bloodthirsty Zionists and their arrogant and intoxicated American supporters?
Which logic and reasoning has justified some 20 days of incessant bombing of Lebanon, some 20 days of extensive crimes, the destruction of a country and the carnage of its civilians and a tragedy such as the Qana massacre and has thus caused the so-called civilized world and the United Nations and various governments and the organizations claiming to support human rights to be so callous and indifferent to these catastrophes?
How long should the Islamic world tolerate the evil and wicked entity of the Zionist regime? How long should Islamic governments allow the belligerent and arrogant United States free rein in this sensitive region?
What has taken place in Lebanon has exposed the true meaning of American human rights to all nations and has shown what the new Middle East pursued by the United States is in reality.
Today, it has become clear to everybody that the aggression against Lebanon has been a premeditated plot and an American-Zionist measure, taken as a major step toward dominating the Middle East and the Islamic world. Bush and his American colleagues are as culpable in the tragedies of Lebanon as the wicked and disgraced officials of the Zionist regime.
The silence on the part of the United Nations and most Western governments and the support extended by certain governments such as the notorious British government will also make them to various degrees culpable and complicit in these tragic incidents in the judgment of the humanity both today and tomorrow and in the great divine reckoning and retribution.
Today, Muslim nations hate the United States and are angry with it more than any other time in the past, and their governments also, even those that are restrained by certain political considerations, are fed up with and objecting to so much outrageous and arrogant oppression.
The United States, because of its support for the Zionist crimes and criminals and because of its flagrant violation of the Muslim nations' rights, should await the hard slap and crushing blow of the Muslim Ummah.
The resistance of the Lebanese nation and the heroic striving of Hezbollah and the power emanating from their faith, patience and trust in Almighty Allah constitute another manifestation of the Islamic world's awakening and its firm resolution in the face of hostilities and animosities.
The smashing punch of the faithful, valorous, oppressed Lebanese youth has now landed on the ugly face of the aggressors and has broken the glass of their drunken haughtiness.
The creation of insecurity, crisis and war in this region is the U.S. strategic policy. But they should realize that the more they foment insecurity, to the greater extent they will incur the wrath of nations and the more they will make the world insecure for themselves.
The aggressive nature and behavior of the United States and Israel will imbue the Islamic world with the spirit of resistance to a greater degree and make the value of jihad more evident to Muslim nations. The Islamic world and Muslim youth in all Islamic countries should know that the only way to confront the wild wolf of Zionism and the aggressiveness of the 'Great Satan' is all-out resistance marked by devotion and self-sacrifice.
Submission and surrender to the adventurous and belligerent U.S. politicians will only increase their covetousness and impudence and make the situation even worse for nations. If Lebanon had surrendered to the aggression waged by Israel and the United States, and if the young devoted Hezbollah mujahideen and the oppressed people in southern Lebanon had not endured the hardships involved in this sacred defense, a long-term tribulation and an increasing suffering would have threatened the entire Lebanese nation, and the continuation of this aggressive trend would have affected this whole region.
Today, Hezbollah is at the frontline of defending the Muslim Ummah and all the nations in this region.
The Zionist enemy sees no difference between this and that religion, between the mosque and the church and between the Shia and the Sunni. It is a racist, aggressive and bloodthirsty regime. If not hindered, it will not refrain from committing any crime against any group or nation.
The nations in this region and different Islamic schools and followers of various religions in Lebanon and in all Islamic countries should join hands and consolidate their unity and, thus, prevent the enemy from capitalizing on their disunion and discord.
The Islamic Iran considers it its duty to resist the bullying and aggressive acts of the United States and the iniquities of the Zionist regime; it will stand side by side with all the oppressed nations, especially the honorable nation of Lebanon and the valiant nation of Palestine.
The United States, which is practically the main culprit in these appalling tragedies because of its explicit endorsement of the massacre of Lebanese civilians and its explicit opposition to a ceasefire in Lebanon as well as extending political and financial assistance and supplying arms to the Zionist aggressors, is now doing a double injustice to the Lebanese nation and government by trying to impose its conditions on them. Undoubtedly, that valiant nation and those brave mujahideen will not succumb to this injustice and will make their decisions only based on their interests.
I express my condolence over the sufferings that have been inflicted on the Lebanese nation, especially the Qana tragedy, to that honorable nation and brave mujahideen and prominent personalities and political officials of that country, and I also convey the heartfelt sympathy of the Iranian nation to them.
Greetings to the great nation of Lebanon.
Greetings to the victorious Hezbollah, and greetings to its valorous, dedicated, Arab leader Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah.
Allah, the Almighty, said: "Therefore be patient; surely the promise of Allah is true, and let not those who have no certainty hold you in light estimation." (The Holy Qur'an, 30: 60)
Sayyid Ali Khamenei