Last week, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei called for the Islamic Republic to remain vigilant against the West’s “soft war” and warned Iran’s “enemies,” specifically the West, were trying to manipulate and control the nation’s policies.
“Our officials and all parts of the establishment should be vigilant about the West’s continued soft war against Iran… the enemies want to weaken the system from inside,” Khamenei said, according to Reuters. He reportedly made the statement while addressing a meeting with members of the Assembly of Experts.
Also last week, Iran elected Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati to head the nation’s 88-member Assembly of Experts (Majles-e Khobragan Rahbari), which is tasked with appointing and dismissing the next supreme leader. This arguably makes Jannati the most powerful man in Iran currently, after Khamenei.
Khamenei reportedly also warned that “Iran’s enemies try to influence decision-making centers, alter Iranian officials’ positions and change people’s beliefs.” He added, “We should be strong and empowered.”
According to Iran’s state-run Press TV, the supreme leader also touched upon the historic nuclear Iran deal (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), asserting that the United States’s concessions were a form of surrender to the Islamic Republic’s “own power.”
“There was time when enemies would not accept even a single centrifuge inside Iran, but they finally surrendered in the face of Iran’s nuclear might,” Khamenei said, according to Press TV. “In fact, it was not the Americans who gave [us] this concession; we got it with our own power,” he said.
The current U.S. administration’s enthusiasm to see a nuclear Iran deal come to fruition resulted in deep tensions with their long-time Saudi Arabian ally. Following severance of diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia in January over the execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, Iran on Sunday announced it was canceling its participation in the annual hajj pilgrimage over Saudi “obstacles.”
On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said Saudi Arabia would have to take responsibility for any cancellation of Hajj pilgrimage.
“My interpretation is that the Saudi government deliberately prevented Iranian citizens from attending this year’s Hajj pilgrimage,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari reportedly said. “Hence, it was necessary to make our stance clear,”
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz.
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