Imam Khamenei: Iranian people turned Gen. Soleimani’s martyrdom into opportunity

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the enemies viewed the martyrdom of legendary anti-terror commander Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani as a threat to Iran, but the Iranian people turned it into an opportunity with their religious zeal.

“The wrong calculations of the United States are still going on, and the example of this is the martyrdom of Martyr Soleimani,” the Leader said in a speech on the anniversary of the popular uprising in the holy city of Qom against the former US-backed Pahlavi regime in 1978.

“They thought that by eliminating this martyr, the great movement of the Iranian nation would be extinguished, but we saw the enormous movement that took place this year on the second anniversary of his martyrdom.

“Who was behind it? It was the work and hand of divine power that created this huge movement and expression of devotion.

"The computing system of the enemies is certainly lax and impaired, and they cannot have a correct assessment of the Islamic Republic and thus, they make wrong decisions and fail, and they will fail again from now on,” the Leader added.

Ayatollah Khamenei said the deep animosity of the United States with the Islamic Republic stems from the Iranian people’s religious zeal.

“Maintain this religious zeal. The factor of saving the country in different trying times is the religious zeal of the Iranian nation. It is the religious zeal that turns threats into opportunities.

“An example of this was the eight-year imposed war and defense, in which the religious zeal of the youth, fathers, mothers, sisters and wives led the youth to go to the front and win this international war, in which they all worked together to defeat the Imam and the movement. The source was this religious zeal,” the Leader said.

Ayatollah Khamenei was referring to the war of the 1980s by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein who invaded Iran with the support of the US and other countries in a bid to stamp out Iran’s nascent revolution led by the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini.

The January 9, 1978 uprising in Qom is seen as a very important historical juncture because it acted a precursor to more mass demonstrations in other cities across Iran, shaking the foundations of the despotic Pahlavi regime before finally toppling it in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The uprising was a reaction to the publication of an article titled “Iran and the Red and Black Colonialism” on the Persian-language Ettela’at daily, which had brazenly desecrated Imam Khomeini — the Islamic Revolution’s late leader and founder of the Islamic Republic.

Many analysts have referred to January 9 uprising as the Islamic Revolution’s starting point.

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