'Sacred Defense' exciting, eventful, fruitful juncture

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 Khamenei on Wednesday morning at Imam Khomeini's Husseiniyya (RA).

During the meeting, Ayatollah Khamenei 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.”

"Sacred Defense must be known as an "honorable" period in our contemporary history," Ayatollah Khamenei said. 

“The military invasion against the country after the Islamic Revolution was not unexpected. It is true that Saddam Hussein [former Iraqi dictator] launched the attack, but behind Saddam was global arrogance," he added. "The West is now admitting that it fought an all-out war against Iran. Attacking a revolutionary system was predictable. They are afraid of the revolutionary ideology. Iran's Islamic Revolution did not just impose a temporary political defeat on the US. It threatened the imperialist system."

The West could not tolerate an Islamic system set up in one of the focal points of the US in the region, the Leader said.

They [the West] attempted coups and tried to attack Iran through Tabas, but they failed, he added, saying that they had to impose a war on Iran. They found a crazy, ambitious neighbor [Iraq's Saddam], and provoked him.

"The imperialist regime sought to bring Iran to its knees. This is one of the important facts regarding the Sacred Defense," the Leader noted. "Saddam wanted to divide Iran and separate Khuzestan from Iran. The people of Khuzestan defended their territory with all their might."

Ayatollah Khamenei said, "The second reason Saddam attacked Iran was to change the regime and topple the Islamic Revolution. They wanted to silence the message of resistance, standing up to global oppression, which Islamic Iran voiced."

"Iran in response did the exact vice versa of what they had expected and had spent billions for. Arabs of Khuzestan stood up to separatists and revolted against them. Some were even martyred."