๐บ Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei quotes University of Chicago political scientist Professor Robert Pape in a new written message marking โSacred Defense Week,โ the anniversary of Iraq's 1980 invasion of Iran, and the second anniversary of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's killing on Telegram Monday.
Key Highlights:
๐ธ US forces "don't come further than the Arabian Sea" because of "painful blows" from Iranian fighters and the "guardians of the Strait of Hormuz," he wrote, predicting that "the Arabian Sea too will soon empty itself of them."
๐ธ The "dominating aggressors themselves" now "seek shelter" from Iranian fighters and "raise their hands in pleading to abandon the war," he said. "Today some consider us the world's fourth superpower," he said, citing @ProfessorPapeโs argument, but added that "by divine calculation" Iran is actually "the first power in the world."
๐ธ He said Iranians have filled squares and streets for seven months, and that more than 30 million have declared their readiness to sacrifice their lives. When a new registration opened, over 500,000 filled the required capacity within 100 minutes, with "armed readiness" declared nationwide.
๐ธEvery segment of society, he said, is insisting on "preserving the blessed Strait of Hormuz," and women have surpassed men "in some arenas of courageous presence."
๐ธ Contrasting the present with the Shah's era, when foreign ambassadors dictated policy, and the 1953 US-backed coup, he declared that the days "our enemy longs to return to" are gone and "will never be repeated."
๐ธ He mourned Ayatollah Khomeini and his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whom he called a martyr, and said the Islamic Republic, which rose "like a phoenix" from the 1980s war, has grown so large after "two recent imposed wars" that "the shadow of its flight falls over enemy lands."
๐ธ He called Hezbollahโs late leader Nasrallah the greatest man to rise in the Levant after the prophets, praised his successor Naim Qassem, and said Lebanese figures relying on the "false promises" of the dominant powers will be remembered for "incompetence and perhaps even treason."
Khamenei has not yet appeared in public since succeeding his father, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes in February.