January 24-2014
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi says one of the “blessings” of the recent nuclear talks with the United States was that they showed clearly just how much the American people and the American government hate Iran and Iranians, Islam and Muslims.
Khamenehi made the comment in a speech January 9 to a large gathering in Qom.
He said, “The enemies of Iran do not know our people and our country…. They have always made this mistake and today they are making the same mistake. They think that our people have held their hands up to surrender under pressure from their sanctions and economic siege.”
Khamenehi said the strength and resilience of the Iranian people was best displayed during the eight-year war with Iraq. “Is eight years of resistance a minor achievement? Is it a minor achievement to defeat all the global powers that helped a criminal to work against our country and our people? Is this a minor feat?…
“During the war, victories came one-by-one. The entire world saw that America, the Soviet Union of those days, Europe, NATO, England and other people supported the Baath regime and the criminal Saddam so that he could occupy our dear country forever. However, he was frustrated after eight years, without being able to get close to achieving even one fraction of his goals. After eight years, he had to retreat with a great loss, with so many dead soldiers and with great humiliation on an international level.”
The question is how many of his listeners believed that description and how many understood that Iran accepted a ceasefire in 1988 because it was exhausted and could not keep up the war.
Khamenehi called on the people to continue their “resistance” to enemies today just as they did during the eight-year-long war.
“Today, the same conditions exist,” Khamenehi said. “Today, too, confronting the enmity of our enemies and overcoming all the current problems is possible by showing resistance, by relying on the domestic capabilities of the country and by trusting in God who has prepared hearts in such a way and who has guided them toward this path. When the enemy sees that our people are determined, that they are standing firm and that they have decided to move things forward, he will have to retreat. This is possible. The people of Iran will shatter their illusions.”
Then Khamenehi got to what was apparently bothering him the most. “They think that because they imposed sanctions on Iran, it was forced to come to the negotiating table. But this was not the case. Before they said such things, we had announced that the Islamic Republic would negotiate—whenever it thinks it is expedient—with this Satan on specific issues in order to eradicate its evil deeds and solve problems. This does not mean that the Iranian nation has become desperate. This has never been the case.”
Khamenehi then said, “One of the blessings of the recent negotiations was that the enmity of the Americans and the officials of the government of the United States of America toward Iran and Iranians, toward Islam and Muslims became clear to everyone. Everyone realized this.” He neglected to explain this, so it certainly was not clear how the negotiations he endorsed proved the Americans were hate-filled people.
Usually in the past, he has said that Iran’s dispute is with the US government, not with the American people. But this time—as he occasionally has done in the past—he lumped the American people with the US government as anti-Iranian and anti-Islamic.
Khamenehi said, “Their political personalities, their newspapers and their political parties are showing their personal and old grudges, as they have shown them over the last 30 years. The issue of human rights, the issue of Islam and the issue of our commitment to religious principles are issues that they always complain about. Everyone has the right to speak about human rights except for the Americans because they have been the greatest violators of human rights not only in the past, but also in the present time.”
He then turned his ire on Barack Obama, while avoiding using his name, as is the norm in Persian speechifying. “In the beginning, when this person decided to run for election, one of the promises that he gave to the people of America was to close the Guantanamo prison. Six, seven years have passed now. Has Guantanamo been closed?” He did not mention that Congress has stopped Obama from doing that.
“The Americans oppress and attack people, they bring their drones to Afghanistan and Pakistan, they kill innocent people and they commit thousands of crimes against civilians…. This is while they speak about human rights.”
