Speaking on the 30th anniversary of the passing of the Islamic Revolution’s Founder, Khamenei said that it was possible for Iran to progress despite all the difficulties but warned the Iranian leadership about being deceived by the US administration.
“My advice to the officials is to focus on the main issue of this time,” Khamenei told the crowd, which included the top officials of the country like President Hassan Rouhani and foreign dignitaries. “In the immediate aftermath of the revolution the main issue was establishing the system and then the war with Iraq... today the main issue is the economy.”
“We have economic problems and the officials are doing their best to find solutions, but we do not have dead-end issues; be they political, economic, or social,” said the supreme leader who is also the commander-in-chief, encouraging the leadership to resist and look for solutions for the economy. “The aim of the resistance is to reach a point that becomes preventative, to manifest itself in a way that prevents the enemy from [thinking about] violations against the people of Iran.”
As people chanted ‘Death to America and Israel,’ Khamenei said that Iran military has reached its preventative stage and that is why the enemy is focused on depriving Iran of this military power. “They will never be able to do that,” Khamenei said as he waved his left hand to drive his point home to the audience.
Khamenei warned the leadership about being deceived by the comments from US President Donald Trump. He urged Iran’s leadership not to allow the Americans to come “close” to Iran, because wherever the Americans go, they bring destruction.
Iranians gathering to listen to the Iranian supreme leader's speech on the occasion of the 30th death anniversary of the founder of the Islamic republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, at his shrine in Tehran on June 4, 2019. Photo: AFP/Khamenei.ir handout
In London on Tuesday, outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May and Trump jointly vowed for their countries to never allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.
Trump said the two countries are “determined to ensure that Iran never develops nuclear weapons” and that Tehran “stops supporting and engaging in terrorism.”
Though she said they had differences on how to achieve that end; May reiterated that the UK remains committed to staying in the nuclear deal: “it is clear that we both want to reach the same goal.”
Khamenei appeared to appeal to people by describing the resistance that Khomeini pioneered in the 1980s before his death on June 3, 1989 and called on people to adhere to the principles that Khomeini outlined in his resistance manifesto. Khomeini who founded the revolution, was a charismatic figure and acted as the unifying force in Iranian politics for the Islamic revolutionaries who came to power.
Khamenei has faced serious challenges to bring all the forces within Iranian politics together. The gap between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) hardliners and President Hassan Rouhani’s government widened with the growing economic woes the country faces, because of the crippling sanctions imposed by the Trump administration after leaving the 2015 nuclear deal last year.
Khamenei said that the resistance that Imam Khomeini promoted is backed by divine power and people and officials should not fear defying the aggressive, big powers.
“Whenever we surrendered and acted as the other side demanded, we incurred losses... resistance has a price but the price of surrendering is higher than resistance,” Khamenei said to chants of ‘Death to Americans,’ as the camera panned and focused on Rouhani, the head of IRGC, General Qassim Soleimani, and other officials.
Khamenei claimed the US was gripped with social and economic issues and said that 41 million people in the United States are going hungry. The US Department of Agriculture stated rather, that around 41 million Americans are food insecure, meaning they lack money to purchase enough food and rely on food stamps and other government-supplied welfare.
Abas Aslani, a journalist and visiting scholar at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies, expressed on Twitter that leaders in Iran do not believe Trump's non-regime change stance. However, progress is possible if the United States stays away from Iran.
“Iran's leader: US president says Iran can progress w/current leadership. These words cannot deceive Iranian leaders. Meantime that is true; these leaders can make country progress if they try their best. The country can progress provided that the US doesn't approach [it],” he tweeted.
#Iran's leader says Iran is not after a conflict with #US. When people started to chant slogan of "neither compromise, nor surrender, but battle against the US", the leader reacted by saying, "pay attention! Now, we don't discuss battle. The issue is resistance." pic.twitter.com/eoDCX0UxUY
— Abas Aslani (@AbasAslani) June 4, 2019
The USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group that Trump announced in May would be deployed to the Middle East amid the rising tensions with Iran, has not entered the Persian Gulf, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.
“You don’t want to inadvertently escalate something,” US Navy Capt. Putnam Browne, the Nimitz-class carrier’s commanding officer told AP.
Entering the Strait of Hormuz would likely be seen globally as an escalation by the United States. At its narrowest point, it is only 33 kilometers away from IRGC naval units.
US Navy Rear Adm. John F.G. Wade, the commander of the carrier’s strike group, explained his forces are able to “conduct my mission wherever and whenever needed.”
“They do impose a threat to our operations, but also to the safety and security of commerce and trade going through the Strait of Hormuz and that’s why we are here,” Wade claimed of the Iranian forces.
US Navy Capt. William Reed, the commander of the carrier’s air wing, laughed off any notion the situation was stressful.
“It’s just another day at the office.”
