Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Monday that the Islamic Republic's war between Iraq and 1980 showed that the country could defend itself without directly resolving the current situation.
"Trying for eight years, trying my
best, and still not getting anything - is there a bigger victory for
Iran?" Khamenei said.
Khamenei made the remarks in a televised
video address to the country's top military commanders and veterans of the war,
which began at the start of the "Holy Defense" week on the
anniversary of the war.
"The Holy defense has shown that
aggression against this country is very costly," he said.
"When a nation shows that it has the
strength and determination to defend itself ... it causes the attacker to think
twice before attacking," Khamenei said.
"And if he wants to act wisely, he
will realize that it is not to his advantage and is too expensive."
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Iran
a year and a half after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, triggering a war that
was eventually ended’ by an UN-brokered ceasefire.
Khamenei said the conflict had made the
Iranian revolution "much stronger" than before.
The top leader also accused Western powers
of keeping Saddam armed and depriving Iran of aid, saying it had "exposed
the reality and nature of Western civilization."
He said Saddam had only "one
instrument" in the hands of united foreign powers against the Islamic
Republic.
His remarks came after the United States
unilaterally announced that UN sanctions against Iran were re-enacted and
threatened to impose "consequences" on states that failed to comply.
The move was rejected’ by other world
powers.
Iran and the United States have twice been
on the brink of a direct confrontation since June 2019.
Khamenei called on officials to preserve
the memory of the war as part of the Iranian "national identity" by
creating works of literature on a global scale.
This year, Iran canceled an annual a military parade marking the anniversary of the war on the novel Coronavirus
Epidemic, which has killed more than 24,400 people and affected more than
425,000 in the Islamic Republic since March.
Khamenei urged Iranians to better observe
health protocols such as social distance and wearing masks, noting that the
virus kills 150 people a day in the country.
"Suppose a ship with 300 people on
board crashes every two days and everyone dies. Is that a small thing?"
They said.
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