Meeting with a Group of Esteemed Families of Martyrs, Veterans, Freed Captives, and Brave People of the Nation

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

First, it is necessary to extend a warm welcome to the dear brothers who have come from various cities, especially the dear freed captives whose presence is a blessing for the Iranian nation and, God willing, will continue to be so, as well as to the esteemed families of martyrs and dear veterans.

The fragrance of jihad and martyrdom is pervasive in this atmosphere. The freed captives are those who carry the honor of the blessed and rewarding years of their youthful lives and revive for us the memories of difficult and memorable days, hours, and moments. Every hour you spent is preserved before God. Those long and painful nights, those fearful and difficult days, those hardships and pressures, those intimidations, that hunger and cold and heat, that distance and estrangement and suffering from the unworthy, and standing against the desires of the enemies of God—all these hours and moments and sufferings are preserved in the divine record. Do not think that these have vanished. All of these, like an audio and video tape, remain. Not a moment of these moments has vanished and is present before God. You dear veterans are the same; your difficult nights, the hardships of your battlefield, the difficulties of your hospital and bed, your pains, your unknown sufferings. And you families of martyrs, your patience, your burning yet sweet grief, your separation from your loved ones, the loss of the fruit of your heart, because it is for God, all are preserved.

In the Islamic Republic system, every action a believer takes must be with the thought that this action and this speech are preserved before God and will return to us. None of these words and deeds and speeches and silences and movements and stillnesses and going and not going and sacrificing and not sacrificing and trampling and not trampling on desires have perished and vanished; rather, all exist. On the Day of Judgment, when this page of deeds is opened and a person sees the tape before them and observes that everything is in it, then someone who did not understand this truth in the world, did not believe in it, and was heedless of it, will be astonished and say: 'What kind of record is this that leaves nothing small or great but has enumerated it?' What a record! What a living tape! It has left nothing small or great but has enumerated it.

We must remember this great truth and this great lesson of Islam and the great lesson of our dear teacher in this era—namely, Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified), who himself was an agent of Islam, and Islam was not only on his tongue and throat but emanated from the depths of his being—that in our actions, we should have good intentions, divine intentions, and pure intentions. If he himself did not have this pure intention, the revolution would not have reached this point. And if this Muslim, faithful, God-seeking, Imam-loving, and devoted nation did not have the intention of God in their actions and worldly intentions and personal and group desires and other things governed their actions and behaviors, this revolution would not have reached this point. What brought the revolution to this point were those pure and sincere faiths and honest intentions and souls full of sincerity and purity. From now on, it will be the same.

From the first day of the revolution until now, we have traversed many stages of this difficult path. If someone denies it, they either have no eyes or no conscience. If someone imagines that the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic Republic have not succeeded in their goals, they are either blind in terms of awareness or in terms of heart and conscience and fairness. We have progressed a lot. Today, under this sky, you cannot find any government or nation that, in terms of valuing human values—that which is of utmost importance to humans—namely, freedom, dignity, independence, not being captive, not being humiliated, not being subjugated by powers and governments, not moving at the behest of this and that, walking according to their own interests and will, having a sense of responsibility, and having movement and awareness and power of its individuals, is like the nation and government of Iran and the Islamic Republic. This is a glimpse of the victories of the Islamic Republic, and of course, there are many more victories.

The amount of service to the deprived and oppressed classes that has been done in this country in the past ten, twelve years, to the villages, to the villagers, to the remote parts of the country, to the unglamorous but beneficial works, despite the war, despite the economic siege, is several times the volume and number that was done during the long years of the previous governments. We have progressed a lot; but know that we still have many tasks ahead of us and many issues before us. This nation, to achieve future victories, must preserve with full power the same factors that have brought it to this point. We still have a lot of work to do.

Today, I have considered a matter to present to you. This matter is among the issues of the nation and the Islamic Republic system, and that is the issue of the noble Al-Quds and the oppressed nation of Palestine. Can we neglect this issue or consign it to oblivion? The characteristic of the Islamic system is that its decision-making is based on belief and divine duty. None of the Islamic jurists have any doubt or disagreement that when the enemy dominates the land of Muslims and threatens the Islamic entity in a country, it is the duty of all Muslims to engage in a great and comprehensive jihad against that enemy, expel him from that Islamic land, and punish and discipline him. Is the malicious, dangerous, criminal Zionism and enemy of Islam and Muslims an aggressor or not? Is the land of Palestine the home and qibla of Muslims or not?

Today, for over forty years, the most malicious enemies of Islam and humanity—namely, these deceitful and cunning Zionists—have dominated a part of our existence, a part of our home and land. What is our duty? What is the duty of Muslims? What is the duty of other Islamic nations regarding Palestine? Is the duty silence?! Woe to those dependent and treacherous heads of state who, for the sake of ruling a few more days and gaining the favor of America and the great powers, disregard a duty of such magnitude. The Islamic nation must be awake and not forget this duty.

The enemy of God took advantage of the heedlessness of Muslims; otherwise, how much power do a few hundred thousand Zionists at the beginning, and later one or two million with all the appendages they gathered from around the world, have? If the heads of Islamic countries were alert, if the Islamic nations were awake, could America's aid save Israel in that case? Absolutely not. Muslims remain heedless, allowing the enemy to assert itself. The enemy is not that strong; we are unaware of our own strength.

Look, as soon as a distraction was created for public opinion in this region—the attack of Iraq on Kuwait and the military deployment of America and others to the Persian Gulf region—and a door was opened here, immediately that seven-headed and dangerous serpent and vile cancer spread its claws and deals with Muslims whose homes have been usurped by the Zionists in this way. Why does the world not react? Why do Islamic nations remain silent in the face of all these disasters and crimes? What is Israel and the Zionist enemy relying on? How much power and strength does America have that the officials and politicians of Islamic countries should be so intimidated?! Nations must raise their heads and awaken. They see that today the so-called human rights and benevolent and humanitarian circles—according to their title and sign—have done nothing wrong and all their claims have turned out to be lies. Do they not see this?

A usurping, deceitful, and oppressive government kills a group of defenseless people and young people and teenagers and small children inside their homes and in the streets that belong to them, but no sound comes from the world. Then when a young Palestinian reacts and sends two or three people to hell, someone from this side of the world, someone from that side of the world, raises their head and expresses regret! What regret?! He did very well, may his hand not hurt. A nation that cannot defend its right must be humiliated. On the first day, the Palestinians showed sleep and heedlessness, and the enemy dominated them in this way. Today, Palestine has awakened. Muslims in Palestine have awakened.

These Zionists understand nothing but the language of force. For forty years, whatever the United Nations has issued regarding the issue of Palestine, against the Zionists, they have rejected. They have become spoiled! Silence and indulgence from the great powers and from nations and governments have emboldened them. They are not afraid of resolutions. Can Israel be pushed back with resolutions? Israel will be pushed back with force and weapons and fists.

I do not find it unlikely that if this internal pressure from the Palestinian youth against the Zionist government did not exist, these malicious Zionist leaders would have taken advantage of this world uproar in the Persian Gulf and by now would have taken half of Lebanon. They started at first, but the internal pressure—this empty-handed and oppressed attack by these faithful and brave young people—kept them in their place. Another aspect of the issue is this; namely, the anger of the Zionists due to the peak of the Islamic movement within the occupied territories.

This is our duty. This is the duty of all Islamic countries. The issue of Palestine does not only belong to the Arabs and the neighbors of Palestine; all Muslims in the world, wherever they are, must feel responsible for the issue of Palestine. Those who truly fight against the usurping Zionist government, whether inside or from outside—not those who claim to be freedom fighters with their hands in the hands of America and the enemies of Islam—must be helped by our nation and government and other Muslim nations and governments with money and weapons and propaganda. In any way possible today, they must be helped. Since we ourselves are not neighbors with Palestine to engage in direct confrontation with the occupiers, and others who are either not neighbors or for any reason do not have the capability, must equip the fighters. This is a religious and definite duty for all Muslims. Until this duty is fulfilled, the issue of Palestine will not be resolved. And if it is fulfilled, the Zionists and their supporters will certainly be defeated.

Let me briefly address some internal issues, and that is that two factions of the representatives of the Islamic Consultative Assembly wrote two letters to me over the past week or two, one of which reached me and the other we heard from the media. In any case, they drafted the letter and asked for a response from us. I will respond in due time—not now—and at the appropriate time, when I feel it is necessary to explain matters more clearly and in more detail to our dear nation, I will say things. Now I will only say one sentence, and that is that the Islamic Consultative Assembly is a place where our nation's hope is in that point. This Assembly is a fortress for the nation; but a fortress against enemies, against America, against counter-revolution. The person whom the people send to this fortress is sent to defend the revolution in this fortress.

In recent times, some words have been heard from some representatives of the Assembly that were not the words of insiders; they were the words of outsiders! We have not heard similar words in these years except from the radio of Israel and the radio of America and the radio of the hypocrites, and no one in the Assembly has said such words! Do not go and say we are not free in the Assembly. No, the representative is free in the Assembly. No one should come and teach us or today's officials of the country about freedom, who have spent their lives striving for freedom. Freedom is the right of the representative and the right of the nation; but freedom in what? Freedom to stand against the nation and contrary to the nation's wishes and speak like the spokesperson of Israel's radio?! No, this is not freedom. In the Islamic society, this freedom is for no one.

The revolution of these people is more precious and valuable than for this nation to allow someone, for a personal or group or factional purpose, to stand in a fortress that is a place of defense of the revolution and question everything against the revolution and against the people and to the detriment of the Islamic Republic system, and to create fodder for the radios and even say something that other radios do not need any interpretation around that statement! This nation will certainly not allow such a thing.

I say to both factions—now they themselves say two factions, I do not see much duality among the faithful and sincere and revolutionary representatives—that act in such a way that you do not find yourself looking and seeing that you are going one way and the nation is going another way for itself and your constituents are not behind you. If the Islamic Consultative Assembly becomes a place where some settle accounts with each other, gradually it will become like this. The rights of representatives who are interested in their duty and work will also be lost.

Of course, today most of those who are serving in this honorable Assembly certainly feel a sense of duty; there is no doubt about this. Our representatives are exemplary among the representatives of national assemblies in the world. Know that nowhere, neither in Western countries nor in Eastern countries—which are now all the same—nor in Islamic countries nor non-Islamic, are the representatives of assemblies as pure and sincere and people-oriented and responsible and sincere as our representatives in this great Islamic Consultative Assembly. No one is like them. They are very good, but they must preserve this before others. Do not let four ignorant, angry, and irresponsible people do something and question the pure and virtuous assembly.

Of course, people must respect the Islamic Consultative Assembly. This reminder of mine is a reminder that I am obliged to say. This should not lead to any disrespect towards the Islamic Consultative Assembly from anyone. The Assembly is the highest and most exalted part of the legal structure of this system and is the place of the nation. They must preserve the Assembly with this respect and grandeur, and no one, neither inside the Assembly nor outside it, should do anything that weakens the Assembly.

May God, God willing, grant all of you success and guide all of us to what pleases Him.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings