Attending the 21st General Assembly of IRGC commanders and officials, President Hassan Rouhani pointed to the formation of three forces of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Sacred Defense Week adding that, “IRGC and other armed forces have had heavy responsibilities for protecting the Revolution and its achievements, as well as the independence and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
“Whenever we have worked together in a unity under the commands of the Leader and the Constitution, we have managed to defeat the enemy,” Rouhani added.
Deeming the armed forces and the IRGC as custodians of the Revolution, Rouhani asserted that, “the same role applies to government officials, MPs, as well as the Supreme National Security Council,” underling that the task of protecting the Revolution is not limited to one single institution; hence the need to achieve synergy between all the individual members of the society.
Pointing to Imam Khomeini’s comments on the importance of guarding the Islamic Republic System, the President said, “the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic Republic are not two separate entities and they should not be detached because they are in line with one another following Imam Khomeini’s slogan of ‘Independence, Freedom, and Islamic Republic’.”
“We have achieved independence in its through sense and by all means especially in terms of politics; however, we need to take further steps in other areas like science and economy,” said Rouhani.
“In past, an embassy, and ambassador, a superpower or a tyrant would easily decide on the fate of our country; but that image has completely changed today because we would not let any superpower decide for us,” said Rouhani defining independence as the ability to consider the benefits of ourselves, our friends, as well as Muslims.
Complaining that even friend countries followed the imposed and illegal sanctions on Iran, Rouhani asserted that, “we have not been able to sell even one barrel more than the designated number in the sanctions and no country including our friends deemed the sanctions as unjust neither did they violate them.”
“Therefore, it’s all up to us to manifest our independence on the world stage,” underlined Rouhani adding that, “being revolutionary is not limited to theory and we need to defend the interests of our people in practice.”
Pointing that we need to break through the sanctions by logic, independence, power, diplomacy, and political power, Rouhani added that, “we never claimed that the sanctions would be removed overnight but the efforts of our nation, courage of armed forces, and the guidance of the Leader we managed to do so.”
Calling for the unity of all people and organizations, Rouhani noted that we will not achieve victory by merely relying on diplomacy or military power stressing, “the government, parliament, judiciary, armed forces, various groups of people, our men and women must become united under guidance of Islam and by obeying the Leader.
Referring to the Imposed War, Rouhani numerated several examples on the effectiveness of unity for achieving and success emphasizing that our great nation’s perseverance and endurance was the cause of our victory during the eight years of war.
Referring to the current crisis in various countries, President Rouhani asserted that, “we should not think that by winning in diplomacy everything is over; rather, our enemies are seeking to put an end to our Islamic Revolution even though their dream will never come true.”
Calling for measures in dealing the problems of all Muslims in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Pakistan, as well as other Muslim countries in the northern Africa, Rouhani added that, “all the activities of terrorists in these countries is to the interest of our enemies and they cause harm to Shias."
Rouhani further stressed that we should strengthen our economy so that other countries will suffer a loss by being our enemy and we need to achieve a point of deterrence that sanctions and boycotts would lose their effectiveness.
The President further called for the collaboration of IRGC and Basij as great powers in the manufacturing sector and construction of the country.
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