I believe the Year 1398 is, by God’s grace, the year of opportunities
After congratulating the Iranian nation as well as all
nations that celebrate Nowruz, Ayatollah
Imam Khamenei addressed his audience by calling the new Persian Year as the
year of opportunities. His Eminence asserted: Some have suggested that this
year is a year of threats. I do not believe in that at all. I believe the
Persian year 1398 is the year of opportunities, by God’s grace, the year of
productivity and success.
The Supreme Leader described those inside the country who constantly talk
negatively about the year ahead as influenced by the propaganda of the enemies
and held: Of course those who suggest other views, and constantly threaten that
unfavorable things will happen, are under the influence of the enemies’
propaganda, whether knowingly or unknowingly. The enemies of this nation, in
addition to all other things they do, they also engage in a psychological
warfare and spread propaganda. These propagandas must be known as they are.
They had the same propaganda for the year 1397 aimed at trying to frighten
people.
Referring to U.S. officials the Leader once named
‘First-rate Idiots’, Ayatollah Imam
Khamenei stressed that the United States has failed in their calculations
against Iran, and said: One of those idiots said that if they withdrew from the
JCPOA, the people of Iran would go on riots and the people would not be able to
afford even bread. Another of these idiots suggested that U.S. officials would
celebrate 2019 in Tehran.
Imam Khamenei pointed to the faulty analysis offered by the United States
regarding Iran’s situation and elaborated on the reason behind these poor
analyses by stating that: Is their analysis really so out of touch regarding
the events in the region and the country? Are they seriously suggesting such
analysis, which is only another sign of their idiocy? Or do they offer such
analysis as part of their psychological warfare, so they are publicizing these
words all over the world out of malice? I am not sure which the case is. It
could be both idiocy and malice.
Today our enemies in region know that the Islamic Republic can combat and defeat any enemy
The Supreme Leader elaborated on the enemies of Iran’s
efforts to stage economic and psychological wars against the Iranian nation by
asserting that: Today the enemy is engaged in an economic war against us. Well
the fact that the enemy is fighting against us is now recognized by all; the
officials have understood that the enemy has initiated a war on us. Wars are
not fought only by armaments; security and intellectual war is also a type of
war, and can at times be more dangerous than a military war. This type of war
can be seen in economic affairs. We must defeat the enemy in this war; and by
God’s grace, we will defeat them.
His Eminence went on to mention that: But this is not enough. My request from
the various actors in the country– government officials, academia, or in
public sectors– is different. In addition to defeating the enemy, we should
repel the enemy. Sometimes, you might defeat the enemy but the enemy might wait
for another opportunity to strike a blow; this is useless.
He stressed that Iran needs to achieve a deterrence level where enemies cannot
harm the country’s economy; he asserted: We must achieve a level where we repel
the enemy, too. So the enemy sees they cannot harm us in the economy. Repelling
is possible, just as has been the case with our military power. There was a
time when the enemy bombarded our cities and we could not defend. Now that we
have developed our equipment, the enemies in the region know that we can
counter any enemy in the region by our precision-guided missiles.
Ayatollah Imam
Khamenei further slammed the Saudi regime for its despotic and dependent
inclinations and held: I do not know any state in this region, or maybe
anywhere in the world, worse than the Saudi regime. It is a despotic,
dictatorial, corrupt, tyrannical and dependent regime. They provide such a
regime with nuclear infrastructure. They announced that they would build a
nuclear plant for it.
Ayatollah Imam Khamenei declared that he
does not worry about Saudi Arabia’s developing nuclear plants as he predicts
the fall of the Saudi regime in the near future. His Eminence held: They
announced they would build missile producing sections. There, it is okay to
build them because that country is dependent on them, and it belongs to them!
Now even if they build them, I would not worry, because I know in the near
future they will be in the hands of Islamic warriors, God willing.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution slammed Western coverage of the
Christchurch terrorist attack for their double standards and Islamophobic
motives and asked: Was not the recent incident in New Zealand—which entailed
the massacre of Muslims—an incident of terrorist nature in their view? The
Europeans, neither the politicians nor their media, would not call it a
terrorist attack. They called it an armed attack instead. Whenever there is an
action against someone supported by the West, terrorism and human rights are
used to oppose it. But in this case – the attack in New Zealand- they would not
call it a terrorist action. They are like this.
Europe has practically withdrawn from the JCPOA
Ayatollah Imam
Khamenei criticized the European partners of the JCPOA for having breached
their commitments by not standing against the United States and held: What was
the responsibility of Europeans in the matter of the JCPOA? An agreement was
achieved between six countries and Iran. One party was the United States which
has already withdrawn. What did the other signatories commit to do? Europeans
should have stood up to the US, saying that they would adhere to their
commitments. Their commitment was to remove all sanctions. They should have
resisted strongly.
His Eminence stressed that Europeans made excuse to evade their commitments and
even went as far as imposing new sanctions on Iran, adding that: However they
did not resist on the pretext of numerous excuses. Not only they did not stand
up to the US, they also practically withdrew from the JCPOA even though they
had insisted that we should keep to it. That is, they even imposed new
sanctions against Iran.
The Supreme Leader went on to say: When Europeans act in this manner, what can
we expect them? What has recently been said about the new financial channel
they created is more like a joke. This is a sad joke, a nonsensical joke. Their
duty is totally different from what they are suggesting to do. In our most
recent international affair, the Europeans betrayed us again. We cannot expect
them
