Statements of His Eminence in Meeting with Members of the Red Crescent, Martyrs Foundation Officials, and Various Segments of the People

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

First, I sincerely thank all of you brothers and sisters, especially the esteemed scholars and the dear families of martyrs, prisoners, missing persons, and the disabled, as well as those who serve these dear ones, who have come from various parts of the country and from different organizations and institutions. I hope these relief organizations, such as the Red Crescent and the Martyrs Foundation, will continue their valuable services to those who are truly the cream of our society in the best possible manner and preserve the memory of the esteemed martyrs in cultural, artistic, and promotional activities.

Today, on the occasion of the approaching night of Arbaeen of Imam Hussain (peace be upon him), which is entirely connected to the valuable efforts made in our time to revive the memory and name of the martyrs, I will discuss some points.

The importance of Arbaeen lies in the fact that on this day, through divine wisdom, the memory of the Hussaini movement was made eternal, and this foundation was laid. If the survivors of the martyrs and the rightful owners do not commit to preserving the memory and effects of martyrdom in various events, such as the martyrdom of Hussain ibn Ali (peace be upon him) on Ashura, future generations will not benefit much from the achievements of martyrdom.

It is true that God Almighty keeps the martyrs alive in this world as well, and the martyr naturally remains in history and the memory of the people; however, the natural means that God Almighty has provided for this task, like all tasks, is something that is within our control and will. We are the ones who, with correct and timely decisions, can revive and keep alive the memory of the martyrs and the philosophy of martyrdom.

If Zainab al-Kubra (peace be upon her) and Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him) had not engaged in struggles, explanations, and revelations during those days of captivity—whether on the same day of Ashura in Karbala or in the following days on the way to Sham and Kufa and the city of Sham itself, and later in the pilgrimage to Karbala and then the journey to Medina, and throughout the many years that these great ones remained alive—and had not explained the truth of the philosophy of Ashura, the goal of Hussain ibn Ali, and the oppression of the enemy, the event of Ashura would not have remained vibrant, alive, and inflamed until today.

Why did Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) say, according to the narration, that whoever recites a verse of poetry about the event of Ashura and makes others weep with that verse, God will make Paradise obligatory for him? Because all the propaganda apparatuses were equipped to isolate and keep the issue of Ashura and generally the issue of Ahl al-Bayt in darkness, so that people would not understand what happened and what the matter was. Propaganda is like this. Even in those days, like today, oppressive and tyrannical powers made maximum use of false, biased, and malicious propaganda. In such an atmosphere, how could the event of Ashura, which occurred with such grandeur in a desert corner of the Islamic world, remain with such fervor and vitality? Certainly, without those efforts, it would have perished.

What kept this memory alive was the efforts of the survivors of Hussain ibn Ali (peace be upon him). To the same extent that the struggle of Hussain ibn Ali (peace be upon him) and his companions, as the flag bearers, faced obstacles and was difficult, to the same extent was the struggle of Zainab (peace be upon her) and the struggle of Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him) and the rest of the great ones challenging. Of course, their scene was not military; rather, it was promotional and cultural. We must pay attention to these points.

The lesson that Arbaeen gives us is that we must keep the memory of truth and the memory of martyrdom alive in the face of the storm of enemy propaganda. You see, from the beginning of the revolution until today, how extensive the propaganda against the revolution, the Imam, Islam, and this nation has been. What propaganda and storm were not launched against the war, a war that was a defense and protection of Islam, the homeland, and the dignity and honor of the people. See what the enemies did against the dear martyrs who took their lives—their greatest asset—and went to sacrifice in the way of God, and directly and indirectly, with radios, newspapers, magazines, and books they published, what they could instill in the minds of simple-minded people all over the world.

Even a few simple-hearted and ignorant people, as well as reputable and non-reputable individuals in our own country, sometimes said things in that turbulent atmosphere of war that stemmed from ignorance and lack of understanding of the facts. These were the things that agitated our dear Imam and compelled him to express the truths with that celestial cry.

If in the face of this propaganda, there was no propaganda of truth, and if the awareness of the Iranian nation and the speakers, writers, and artists did not serve the truth that exists in this country, the enemy would prevail in the field of propaganda. The field of propaganda is a very vast and dangerous field. Of course, the overwhelming majority of our nation and people, thanks to the awareness resulting from the revolution, are insured against enemy propaganda and have gained immunity. Because the enemy lied so much and showed things that were in front of people's eyes in reverse and distorted, our people's trust in the statements, fabrications, and nonsense of global propaganda has been completely removed.

The oppressive and tyrannical Yazidi apparatus, with its propaganda, condemned Hussain ibn Ali (peace be upon him) and pretended that Hussain ibn Ali (peace be upon him) was someone who rose against the apparatus of justice and the Islamic government and for worldly purposes!! Some even believed these false propaganda. Even after Hussain ibn Ali (peace be upon him) was martyred in that strange manner and in that horrific way by the executioners in the desert of Karbala, they pretended it was a victory and conquest! But the correct propaganda of the Imamate apparatus changed all these fabrications. Truth is like this.

It is true that we do not have the powerful global loudspeakers that are in the hands of global arrogance and Zionist media, with all their grandeur and breadth, and their propaganda networks are much wider than ours, and we are limited compared to them; but our righteousness causes that when a statement is issued from the officials of the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation, it affects healthy hearts and on a global scale.

They tried so hard with propaganda that global arrogance directed and planned to pretend that the Iranian nation was defeated in the face of the global arrogance's plot. These foolish neighbors of ours in Iraq also believed that this was indeed the case! That is why they always repeated in their propaganda and said that we won! They tried to present themselves as victors; but all the fair and healthy people of the world understood the truth and realized that the one who won in this war was the Iranian nation and the one who was defeated was the Iraqi regime.

All the wise people of the world, their judgment and discernment regarding a regime that, with noise and clamor, equips a crowd to capture a point and occupy a region, is clear. Suppose you have a house, and a thief or a bully gathers a crowd and comes with noise and clamor to take this house from you. He comes there, makes noise for a while, stops for a while, then loses his people, suffers many damages, gets wounded, and after a while, returns empty-handed and leaves. What is the judgment of the people of the world and the wise regarding such a person?

There is no greater defeat than this for the Iraqi regime, which set out with the intention of dismembering Iran—which they explicitly stated—and with the intention of overthrowing the Islamic Republic system—which they announced in their initial propaganda—and with the intention of striking and destroying the armed forces, and received financial, human, intellectual, and equipment assistance from almost the entire world—East and West, Europe and America, and some third world countries and Arab reactionaries—and came close to the borders of the Islamic Republic. They lingered for a while, made noise, shouted, committed wrongdoings, disgraced themselves, tarnished their political and social reputation in the world, and in the end, returned empty-handed!!

They wanted to destroy the Islamic Republic; but our system became stronger day by day. They wanted to dismember the country; but, thanks be to God, the unity of the country reached its highest level. They wanted to destroy our armed forces; but today, our armed forces are organized, experienced, skilled, strong, and ready for defense. They wanted to make the Iranian nation distrustful of the revolution and Islam; but the whole world witnesses and sees that day by day, the faith, sincerity, readiness, presence, growth, awareness, and commitment of this nation to Islam and the revolution have increased.

This was a great defeat for the enemy, and the Iranian nation, which stood with reliance on God and with sacrifice and selflessness, and prevented the enemy from achieving its sinister goals, is victorious. Victory means this. This is the greatest victory that a person can stand without relying on others and repel the enemy. Thanks be to God, this victory came to the Iranian nation.

We are on the threshold of the week of the imposed war. The days ahead are held in memory of the years of war and all the trials and tribulations of the Iranian nation, and it must constantly renew this thought for the Iranian nation that in the imposed war, the victory and success of our nation came with the blessing of unity, cohesion, reliance on God, and not relying on others, and readiness for sacrifice. The Iranian nation must preserve these characteristics for themselves so that if the thought of aggression exists in the mind of anyone or any aggressor, that thought will be completely removed from the minds of enemies and aggressors.

Of course, after we accepted Resolution 598, our commitment to the provisions of this resolution has remained and will remain. The enemy and the Iraqi regime are procrastinating in implementing the resolution, and unfortunately, the necessary pressure from the United Nations and other international forums has not been exerted on Iraq. They should have exerted pressure, those who approved this resolution and spoke so much and made propaganda for its implementation should have forced Iraq to implement that resolution.

The Iraqi regime procrastinated, and so far, the first clause of the resolution has not been implemented. We insistently emphasize that the provisions of the resolution must be implemented one after the other. The slogan of direct dialogue and negotiation, if it means leaving the provisions of the resolution idle, is not acceptable at all. Direct dialogue and negotiation are good; but the provisions of the resolution, which guarantee the rights of both countries and give the right to the rightful, must be implemented, and we emphasize this issue. The power of our nation is the backing of this issue, and with noise, clamor, and propaganda, they will not be able to divert us from what we have emphasized and insisted upon.

The provisions of the resolution must be implemented, and the first step is the withdrawal of the enemy from the borders it has occupied. The amount, whether small or large, is not the issue; what is important is that the amount occupied by the enemy must be returned. The enemy's failure to withdraw to international borders is a threat to peace in the region. This is the same aggressive nature that we attributed to the Iraqi regime for several years; but some did not believe it; however, now it is proven.

When the ceasefire was implemented, the forces must withdraw to international borders. The one who does not withdraw is the aggressor. This is the first step that must definitely be taken and will be taken; because the whole world knows that a revolutionary nation will not tolerate even an inch of its land being in the hands of the enemy.

We hope that God will grant success to all of you brothers and sisters, especially those who serve the dear families of martyrs, prisoners, the disabled, and the missing. As our great and late Imam and leader repeatedly said, these are the true benefactors of the nation, and they are the ones whose sacrifice and selflessness have brought the power and strength of the Iranian nation and government in the world. We hope that God will bring our dear and great nation to its highest ideals and aspirations, which is the complete victory of Islam and Muslims.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings