Gen. Yahya Rahim-Safavi, who was previously the commander of the Pasdaran and is now the senior military adviser to the Supreme Leader, said last Tuesday that the Islamic Awakening and the culture of the Islamic revolution have reached all nations.
Safavi said the enemies of Iran had first imposed a hard war in the form of military conflict with Iraq on the Iranian people.
“At the beginning of [the eight-year Iran-Iraq] war, the military threat was beyond the capacity of the Iranian Army and Pasdaran.… What led to victory was without a doubt the power of the Iranian nation’s faith,” he said.
“The war today is a soft war that is a cultural and economic battle. Our enemies, by applying cultural war [tactics] and using satellite channels and cyberspace,… are trying to change the beliefs and ideology of our youths,” the state news agency quoted Safavi as saying in Esfahan.
He said the enemies of Iran are now pursuing political change in the country through behavioral influences, but Iran will win the cultural war due to the cultural changes the Islamic Awakening has opened up in Muslim countries.