of the death of Ayatollah Khomeini.
Khamenehi listed everything that was great about the Islamic Republic and everything that is horrible about the West—a fairly lengthy list.
He called Western politicians and media “liars” for saying that a nuclear Iran would be a danger. “What they are—and should be afraid of—is not a nuclear Iran, but an Islamic Iran,” he said. That set off cheers and chants from his audience of tens of thousands at the shrine to Khomeini south of Tehran.
The speech broke no new policy ground. It actually broke no new rhetorical ground either. But it was a masterful compilation of the regime’s messages to its own people, even if the facts offered up were often highly imaginative.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked her reaction to the fulminating anti-Western rhetoric. She dismissed it as “nothing new” and intended chiefly for domestic consumption. Rather than rhetoric, she said, she looks forward “to what the Iranians actually bring to the table in Moscow,” when Iran sits down at the table later this month with the Big Six. It was plain that she saw no connection between what Iranian politicians say in speeches to their people and what policies they actually pursue.
Perhaps what was most interesting about Khamenehi’s speech was that he said absolutely nothing about American cyberwarfare against Iran, although he was speaking two days after The New York Times carried an immense story describing what the Obama Administration has been doing to squeeze Iran.
The Times’ story actually provided hard evidence for the regime’s theory of staunch Western opposition to the Islamic Republic. But it clearly was not something the regime wanted to air before the Iranian public. Khamenehi just ignored it. The media have also ignored it—presumably on orders from state censors.
Khamenehi devoted a large part of his speech to history and how Iran had long been wronged by foreigners.
“We, as Iranians, have gone through different times during history. We have had glory and humiliation during our long history. However, we Iranians went through the most difficult times of humiliation in the long, 200-year era before the revolution,” he said.
“There are many signs of this humiliation. During all those years, we were an isolated nation in terms of politics. We had no effect in our own region, let alone globally. Colonialism was created during this era. Colonial governments came to our region from all over the world, took over countries, enslaved nations, and plundered the wealth and resources of nations….
“It was in this time that the British government created the Pahlavi Dynasty in Iran. They chose Reza [Pahlavi]. They pulled him up from a very low place, and made him the king of this country. They established his power as a law in the country.”
Khamenehi complained about the Big Three meeting in Tehran during World War II, painting it as an insult to Iran. “Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin had a meeting here. They had a meeting in Tehran. They neither asked for anyone’s permission nor showed a passport. They arranged for a meeting here as they desired. They did not pay attention to Mohammad Reza, who was Iran’s king then. They did not go to meet him and he had to go to their meeting. When he entered the room, nobody even moved a muscle; they ignored himÖ. This is the lowest point for a government and its people.”
But then came the dawn. “Then the revolution happened. The revolution turned the page. The great Islamic Revolution totally changed the direction, and turned the page. The hard work of the Imam [Khomeini], revived the spirit of national dignity among people.”
As a result, Khamenehi said, Iran now has great influence, not only within the region, but also throughout the entire world. “Even our enemies say this,” he asserted.
Khamenehi said Iran was now able to stand on its own two feet. “We do not have any need for foreign experts. A country where once they brought in foreign experts to asphalt a street, or build a bridge—today this country carries out huge projects, great engineering constructions and complicated work.”
He also boasted of stupendous scientific achievements since the revolution. “This is not what we say. It is what the official scientific centers of the world say. They say that the scientific growth of Iran is 11 times greater than the average in the world. They say that this has increased by 20 per cent in year 2011. This is what they say.”
The Iran Times has tracked down such claims in the past and found them taken out of context or sometimes wholly invented. In this case, Khamenehi cited no source so there was nothing to check.
Turning to the Arab world and the uprisings there, Khamenehi said that the end of the Mubarak reign in Egypt means “the Zionist regime feels it is naked. They are nervous and surprised. The activity and comments today by Zionist leaders about military actions and attacks show that they are scared. They know well that in such circumstance, they are vulnerable more than ever. Each wrong step, each unstable move, will be a storm against them.
“Today, the westerners and also Americans, who have always been unconditional supporters of the occupying regime [Israel], are in trouble more than ever. Today, the West keeps up appearances despite financial problems, monetary problems, economic problems, social problems. They are failures in dealing with their own people. Several US-supported governments in Europe have fallen. If people have the opportunity, they will wipe out every sign of American arrogance in Europe. This is the situation today.
“The United States is in the worst situation. Nations hate the USA. The USA faces crisis. Of course, they want to transfer the crisis to Asia, to Africa, to the Middle East. [They want to] hide their weaknesses by creating events in other countries and other regions. That is what they are after. One of the things they
want to do in this region is to turn the great uprisings against the people [by using] ethnic, religious and tribal disagreements. We must be vigilant. We must be vigilant.”
Khamenehi concluded his speech on a further anti-American note. In his last paragraph, he said: “Of course the Americans and westerners are frenzied. They take frenzied actions. They magnify the nuclear issue to hide their real issues. They put Iran’s nuclear issue on the top of their and the world’s agenda while what they say is not the truth. They falsely mention nuclear weapons. They falsely magnify issues in propaganda. Their goal is to divert thoughts and public opinion away from developments in the USA and Europe. This is their aim. Of course, they will not succeed.”
