Interview Upon Leaving the Hospital

Journalist: Peace be upon you.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.

Journalist: Your Excellency! I express my respect and admiration to you.

May you live long.

Journalist: Thanks be to God that after a week of surgery, Your Excellency is leaving the hospital today. Our interested people and the Muslim nations, who are fond of you around the world, are eager to hear about your physical condition and the last moments you spent in the hospital.

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Thanks be to God, the surgery and its preparations and follow-ups were carried out in the best possible manner; I am now apparently returning home in complete health. My body is healthy, but my heart and soul are heavy with the immense love and kindness that has been shown to me during this time; indeed, a person becomes burdened by all this love that people from various strata have expressed and demonstrated towards me; and there was not a day that hundreds, thousands of messages of love, like drops of life-giving rain that refresh every dead heart and every parched land, did not descend upon my heart and soul from the people—respected scholars, esteemed authorities, prominent figures of the country, and individuals from various strata. The extent of love expressed towards me is such that I truly find myself ashamed in the face of all this kindness shown to me during this week. In addition to the people of our country, from other nations—of which I have always emphasized that the Iranian nation has a strategic depth that is unique to it, and we do not know of any country or system that has such deep roots of kindness, affection, and emotional and faith-based connections beyond its borders—we have this; we have observed this in these few days. In any case, yes, I am physically healthy, and thanks be to God, I am spiritually cheerful, but I am ashamed of all this love and kindness that has been shown to me during this week from various sides and groups—from politicians, from various professions and strata of the people, from artists and athletes; those who have been seen and many more who have not been seen—who have shown me kindness, written to me, or expressed their love through electronic means. We hope, God willing, that the Almighty God rewards all of them with goodness.

As for the medical issue and the work of the medical staff; one aspect is that I must thank these doctors and healthcare workers; well, this is an absolute and definite duty; they truly performed excellently; however, beyond thanks, I take pride in these doctors of ours. I take pride that our dear Iran is at a level in terms of medical standards and capabilities that our nation should be proud of having this number of doctors, whether surgeons, internal medicine specialists, or various types of those who provide medical services, including nurses; we truly have this immense wealth at our disposal; an immense wealth of human resources in one of the most fundamental and vital sectors that is important for human life and society, namely the health and hygiene sector. I see how much they feel a sense of duty and responsibility; and how knowledgeable they are and how skilled they are in their work; I have always had this view of our medical community and the healing community; but when one is under their care and sees how they work, that 'knowledge of certainty' turns into 'eye of certainty'; one tangibly feels what an immense wealth we have in the presence of our dear doctors. And we hope, God willing, that the Almighty God rewards all of them.

Of course, I said that our expression of thanks to them cannot be completed with just these two or three words; I told Dr. Marandi that I ask this duty from you—he has worked hard, taking on the responsibility of our medical team, as he always does with kindness—both he and Dr. Sajadi should, on my behalf, express thanks to these dear ones in whatever way they know and in whatever language they know.

And now I would like to mention something outside the issue of the hospital and illness and the hospital environment, and that is that in these last few days—I had some leisure time, and that leisure consisted of listening to the Americans' words regarding ISIS and their fight against ISIS and the statements they make; empty, hollow, and biased words. Among the things that truly amused me was that I saw both the U.S. Secretary of State and that girl— their spokesperson who comes and stands there and speaks—explicitly stated that we do not invite Iran to join the coalition against ISIS! First of all, what greater honor is there for us than that the U.S. is disillusioned with us in a collective action, in a wrong action they are undertaking, and does not want us to be involved; this is a source of pride for us, not a cause for regret. Secondly, I saw they are all lying; because in the early days when the issue of ISIS arose in Iraq, the Americans, through their ambassador, requested from our ambassador in Iraq to come and sit down and coordinate with us regarding ISIS. Our ambassador conveyed this; some of our officials had no objections, I opposed it; I said in this matter, we particularly will not cooperate with the U.S.; because they themselves have blood on their hands; how can we cooperate with those whose hands are stained and whose intentions are impure? After that, the same Secretary of State who came out in front of the whole world behind the camera and said, 'We do not want cooperation from Iran,' personally requested from Dr. Zarif to come and cooperate with us in this matter; Dr. Zarif rejected it. His deputy—who is also a woman you see, you know—requested from Mr. Araqchi in his negotiations to come and cooperate with us; they rejected these requests. After they rejected and we explicitly stated that we will not cooperate with you in this matter, now they say we do not want Iran to be involved!

Previously, they formed a coalition against Syria—with much noise around the world; they gathered thirty, forty, fifty countries—yet they could not do anything regarding Syria; the same goes for Iraq. They do not want to undertake any serious action. The movement that was carried out against ISIS and broke ISIS's back in Iraq was not the work of the Americans; they themselves know this well, the ISIS members know this well, and the people of Iraq know this well; they know it was the work of the Iraqi people, the Iraqi army, and the popular forces who had learned well how to fight against ISIS; and they fought and have dealt serious blows up to this point, and they will continue to do so; they will see. With this action, the U.S. wants to find an excuse to, just as they have done in Pakistan with the established government and the strong army—Pakistan's army is a strong army—enter Pakistan without permission and bomb wherever they want; they want to do the same in Iraq and Syria; they should know that if they take such action, they will face the same problems that arose for them in the past ten years regarding Iraq. In short, watching these matters was a source of amusement for us, even while lying on the hospital bed.

Journalist: Thank you very much; the hearts of millions of pure people accompany Your Excellency on your journey and their prayers are always with you.

May you live long.

Journalist: We are in need of your prayers.

God willing, may you be successful.