Speech on the Meeting with a Large Group of Returnees on the First Anniversary of Their Freedom and Return to the Country

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

I extend a warm welcome to all of you, my very dear brothers present in this gathering, who have had the honor of enduring a difficult period of trial. I express my heartfelt sincerity and devotion to each of you dear ones and seize this opportunity to express my devotion and sincerity to all the returnees across the country—these living heroes of the revolution and the Islamic system—and send my greetings to their families, who endured the hardships of this trying period with patience and reliance on God. I also send my greetings to each of the Basijis of this country and the sincere and militant members of the Party of God, whose primary enthusiasm and lofty goal is to preserve the Islamic system and seek God's satisfaction.

A year has passed since those days; days when our nation embraced your weary faces and tormented bodies after years of separation, and you, the vanguard soldiers of the Iranian nation, rejoined the turbulent waves of this great ocean and returned to the heart of the Islamic camp. The day of your return to the embrace of the nation and homeland was a day of joy for our people, a day of celebration for the Imam of the Age (may our souls be sacrificed for him) for the Iranian nation, and a day of demonstrating God's power to the skeptics. We must always cherish this day, commemorate it, and learn from it.

There are many seemingly unattainable goals that one thinks are very difficult to achieve; but with reliance on God, patience, and resistance, those goals are reached, like your freedom, which was one of those things. Of course, our joy is not yet complete, and the wound in our hearts has not yet fully healed, because a part of this nation's body is still in captivity. Not all parts of this nation's body have returned, and we do not know exactly how many are still there; but certainly, some of our dear ones are still in those harsh conditions, perhaps even harsher—due to the enemy's savagery and anger towards the Iranian nation—which we have a duty to pursue and never forget. To bring back this group of dear ones, whatever we can do is our religious and human duty, and we must do it, and the officials are obliged to make every effort, so that, God willing, we may return other oppressed faces who are still in captivity to the embrace of the nation.

A year has passed. This year has been and is a lesson for each of us. Look at the transformations and upheavals that the region has witnessed since last year, these days when you gradually entered the country; what kind of fire was ignited in the Persian Gulf region; how many innocent people from the Iraqi nation, either by Western and American aggressors or by the bloodthirsty Ba'athists, perished under the rain of fire and bullets or lost their loved ones; what the aggressive and arrogant American regime did in this year; what the reckless, foolish, and ambitious Iraqi regime did in this year; what the Iraqi people and refugees endured, what we endured, what hardships the region endured.

They made a fuss, displayed power-seeking, and then, in the face of the onslaught of the forces of the global arrogance camp, they scurried like a mouse into a hole and, to save their lives and position and reign, surrendered to America's bullying and took it out on their own people! Both the Iraqi nation suffered, the region suffered, Iraq was ruined, Islamic countries were pitted against each other, and worse and more dangerous than all of this, America felt powerful in the region, stepped in, and began to bellow and challenge. What are these damages due to? They are due to the lack of faith, irreligion, and selfishness of a group whose fate of a nation is in their hands.

See how much humanity is valued by Islam. See if there was a grain of faith in God and work for God in the hearts of those inhuman and faithless Ba'athist leaders, how different the situation would have been. See how much the loss of faith and selfishness costs humanity.

Dear ones! This is a lesson. You and I are constantly exposed to this selfishness. The devil within us constantly commands us to evil, enmity, selfishness, and corruption. If a person cannot suppress that inner devil, its damage does not only return to him; it may return to a family, to the people of a city, to a nation, or to a region; as you saw in these recent events, it returned. A selfish regime alien to divine and human concepts, for ambition, does something that not only the Iraqi nation but also the nations of the region must atone for.

The second lesson in this incident is that our nation should understand, and each of our youth and your awakened souls and living consciences should pay close attention to how conspiracies are against the Islamic Ummah. See what they are doing today about Palestine and what dream they have for this nation, and in fact, for the region. This is also largely due to the events of the past year.

As soon as America was able to create a bellowing power for itself in this region with tanks, cannons, warships, and bombing and such means, it immediately turned to the main issue of the region—the issue of Palestine—and became greedy and imagined that since the weak-spirited governments of the region consider themselves indebted and under its favor—because it has repelled the danger of the Iraqi regime from them—it is time to take advantage of this and realize the long-standing dream of arrogance in recent years. What is that dream? That dream is to sacrifice and slaughter the Palestinian cause before the treacherous Zionists. They want to do this and are doing it; we hope that with the zeal of the Islamic Ummah and the Muslim youth of Palestine, they will not succeed in this great betrayal.

See how arrogance stands with claws and teeth and with a bloodthirsty state and without a shred of humanity and mercy, to trample on the Islamic nations and their aspirations for its arrogant desires if it can. Today, this issue of Palestine is one of the greatest issues and calamities of the Islamic world and will be in the future. Is it a joke to displace a nation from its home, life, country, and land, to place a vile mercenary usurper there, to help him in every way, to endorse all his crimes, to have their hands up to the elbows in the blood of the people of the region, and not to be satisfied with this, to want to take signatures from Muslims and the rightful owners of the house that this house belongs to that usurper and the owner has no right in it?! They want to do this.

Have the brave Palestinian youth died? Have the youth of the neighboring Islamic countries of Palestine and other Islamic countries died that the enemies want to solve the greatest issues of the Islamic world so easily to their advantage and to the detriment of the Islamic Ummah? What is this silence that exists in the Islamic world today? Until a few years ago, did anyone in the Islamic world dare to speak of negotiating with the usurping Israeli government? One traitor—that Egyptian tyrant—dared and acted, and shortly after, he saw the reward for his action.

Today, they present the issue as a simple matter. On the other side of the issue is America, which says come and negotiate with the Zionists, with these thieves, with these murderers, with those who have been torturing the Palestinian nation for forty years and are spreading poison and treachery against the entire Islamic world and stabbing from behind, and most or all of the problems of the Islamic world stem from them, and sign that Jerusalem and the land of Palestine and the Golan belong to the Zionists!

What is America's role in this issue? On what basis does the American government give itself the right to enter an issue that belongs to this nation and this region as a custodian, an owner, and a bully, and dictate to this and that what to do?! What is it to you? You invaded and trespassed in the Americas without permission and killed people; isn't it enough?! In this Middle East region, the heart of each of the aware and conscious people of these nations is full of hatred and enmity towards you; come closer and want to solve the issue of Palestine in your opinion! Is this the solution?! The solution to the Palestinian issue is that the usurping government should be dismantled and destroyed; the rightful owners of the land should come and form a government there; and Muslims, Christians, Jews, and whoever they are, should live together.

You young people should know that this is the plight of the Islamic world. No one should think that the threat and danger have been removed from the Islamic world. It is true that we have advanced in these twelve years, occupied areas in the political arena, accomplished many tasks thanks to the leadership of our great Imam and the steadfastness of this nation, and today we are stronger, more powerful, and more reputable in the world compared to previous years, and the nations of the world have understood and confirmed the power and greatness of this nation, and we have greatly disappointed the enemy; but the threats have not ended.

Some should not think that today the issue of our country is the issue of more or less of a certain commodity or a certain facility; the issue is the threat to the essence of the revolution and the essence of the Islamic system and the essence of Islam. Today, the issue is that only this nation stands against America's tyranny and greed; this nation speaks and exposes the brazen and arrogant policies of the enemies. Therefore, they are hostile to this nation.

We cannot close our eyes and sit silently regarding the calamities of the Islamic world and the aggression of the enemies of Islam. This nation is the soldier of Islam. This nation rose for Islam and expelled the enemies of Islam from this country and cut off America's foot. We have not turned away from Islam; Islam is our existence and everything. The enemy is angry about this and threatens us.

Now you see, the smallest issue that can be used as a pretext to create a commotion against the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation and our serving government, arrogance, through its propaganda agents, takes that pretext and clings to it and creates a commotion. Their effort is to disperse and scatter this nation and destroy this unity. Their effort is to make this nation forget its aspirations for Islam and Islamic values and become preoccupied with the daily issues of life. Their effort is to take this great support away from Islam and the Muslim nations of the region and disintegrate this resistant mass. For twelve years, America and arrogance have been suffering from this nation and want to take revenge; be vigilant.

Our view on the issues of Palestine is clear and obvious. We see the solution to Palestine in the destruction of the Israeli regime. Do not say it cannot be done; there is no such thing as impossible in the world. All the great mountains that hinder the movement of people can be removed. Forty years have passed; if another forty years pass, ultimately the Israeli government is doomed to destruction and must be destroyed. Until a short time ago, no one thought that the Eastern superpower would disintegrate like this. If someone had said two years ago that the Eastern superpower would disappear, some would philosophically stroke their beards and say yes, you are simple! The day when the Imam wrote in a letter to Gorbachev that after this, Marxism should be found in museums, some sneered! Two or three years had not passed before that prediction came true. After the Imam's passing, it did not take a year for everything to change; how can it not be done?

The arrogant power of America will also disappear, it will also disintegrate, this hellish power is not lasting, Israel is also not lasting. This is the word of the Iranian government and nation and the Islamic Republic system, and this will happen. This will be realized under the vigilance of you, the nation, and the vigilance of the Muslim nations. We must strive. Our duty is to strive.

You returnees, especially with this heavy experience you have gone through and now, thanks be to God, have entered the vast society of this nation, each of you must shine like a star and be a symbol and model of loyalty to the ideals of Islam and insistence on following the path of the revolution and a center of enlightenment against the ambitions of arrogance.

I ask Almighty God to awaken the Muslim nations; to give them strength, courage, and the power to act and to bring Islamic governments and officials of Islamic countries closer to their people and protect them from the evil of ill-wishers and falling into the traps of the enemy's conspiracies.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings