Sacred Defense proved resistance only way to protect country

On the occasion of the Sacred Defense –the war Imposed by the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein against Iran– a group of commanders, war veterans, and martyrs' families met with Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Wednesday morning at Imam Khomeini's Husseiniyya (RA).

During the meeting, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “The Sacred Defense proved this fact that protecting the country and [achieving] deterrence can be achieved through resistance, not surrender."

He said resistance raised the morale and self-confidence of the people and, at the same time, taught the enemy to reconsider its calculations and include the Iranian nation’s power and resistance.

“The military invasion against the country after the [Islamic] Revolution was not unexpected. It is true that Saddam launched the attack, but behind Saddam was global arrogance,” he said.

“The Sacred Defense is an exciting, eventful and fruitful juncture. The era of Sacred Defense is one of the events that have an effect on our yesterday, today and tomorrow,” he said. “Therefore, the veterans [of the war] should be given attention and respect.”

He noted that the Iranian nation had a new message for the world during the era of the Islamic Revolution and the imperialist countries did not want anyone to hear that message.

“They wanted to smother the voice of the Iranian nation in the throat,” he said. “They wanted to show that if anyone rises against the US, they will be suppressed.”

Ayatollah Khamenei said the enemies were angry because of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which he said was not in line with the policies of Western and Eastern powers.

He recalled that all countries in that era were either pro-West or pro-East and no independent nation existed at the time.

“It was not at all tolerable for a country outside of this [bipolar] system to come and speak its mind. It was unbearable for them that a nation is not afraid of America,” he said.

The Leader also noted that the revolution brought about events in the world that “perhaps we were not aware of all of its dimensions at that time, but they knew what had happened.”

MNA/