Another great challenge was the economic pressure and sanctions which were imposed on us. Today they speak about sanctions. Sanctions are not new to us. The unilateral sanctions by America and European countries started from the first year of the Revolution. These sanctions and restrictions reached their peak during the war. I said once that we wanted to import barbed wire from abroad. The cargo had to be delivered through the Soviet soil, but the Soviet Union would not allow the cargo to be delivered through their soil in spite of the fact that it was neither a military cargo nor could it be used for aggressive purposes. It was just barbed wire. This shows how many restrictions they had imposed on our country. They imposed sanctions on us in all economic areas. Their purpose was to bring the Iranian nation to its knees. Their purpose was to bring to the Islamic Republic to its knees. But the Islamic Republic brought all those policies and policy-makers to their knees by relying on the patience and insight of you dear people.
We managed to turn these limitations into an opportunity. These prohibitions, sanctions, and limitations allowed us to achieve advances in all areas of innovation, advances which the regional countries could not achieve over the course of many years. Our nation, our people and our youth acquired knowledge. I can cite examples which show the situation of other revolutions, but there is not enough time now. Maybe I will discuss the issue in other meetings. The revolutions that happened in certain countries in the 1970s - a few years before our Revolution took place - were in a pathetic situation. They were not comparable to our Revolution. Our great Revolution managed to make such progress.
Imam Khamenei, Oct 12, 2011
Comment