Leader rules out both negotiations and war with the US (1)

Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, on Tuesday, May 14 hosted senior civilian and military officials for Iftar or breaking the fast of the blessed month of Ramadhan, and in his memorable speech, analyzing the current situation, he ruled out the prospects of either negotiation or war with the US.

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution praised Allah Almighty for His Favours, and saluted the Chief of all Divine Messengers, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Next he greeted the Lord of the Age, Imam Mahdi (AS) – may God hasten his reappearance for establishment of the global government of peace, prosperity and justice.

He said: “Blessed Ramadan is an auspicious month for all us in the true sense of the word. It is the month of piety. We, who are officials – all of us – need piety or God- wariness more than others. God says in ayah 183 of Surah Baqarah of the holy Qur’an: “O you who have faith! Prescribed for you is fasting as it was prescribed for those who were before you, so that you may be Godwary.”

Ayatollah Khamenei pointed out: “So that you may be Godwary”, means means that God has created the month of Ramadhan to prepare the ground for the promotion of piety. And it is addressed to everyone. Piety should be promoted among all people. Therefore, the month of Ramadan is the month of promoting piety.

“In the great movement of human life, you have been shown a straight path which is filled with problems. Take the case of a piece of land which is filled with mines here and there. Then, they open a path and say that this is the safe path and that you should proceed. This is the straight path. Piety means being careful against deviation from the straight path. You should not deviate from it lest you get stuck in serious problems. If you attain piety, you will achieve furqan, as ayah 29 of Surah Anfal says: “He will grant you a criterion to judge between right and wrong”

“Furqan” means the criterion or power to distinguish and to make decisions. This is very important. In all affairs of life, we need the power to distinguish the correct path from the wrong one and the truth from evil. Ayah 2 of Surah Talaq, says: “Whoever is wary of Allah, He shall make a way out for him.” Here the Arabic word “makhraj” means breaking dead ends. If there is piety, there will be no dead ends in your affairs. In all aspects of life, if you have piety, show consideration to and fear Allah in the same way as has been mentioned, there will be no dead ends. Piety breeds insight.”

Ayatollah Khamenei said: “So, when we are committed to piety, we fear only the power of God, and not the power of others. “Not showing fear” means not showing consideration to them. This does not mean that we should not be careful about them. We should be careful, but we should not fear them. We should not think that our lives, our happiness, our future and our destiny are in their hands. This is against piety.

“Notice that all these are ways for the victory of a nation. When there is piety in the Islamic Ummah and when they think and act like this, there will naturally be blossoming, progress, advancement, transcendence and improvement.

Piety is vast in scope. In other words, deep in your hearts, you can show piety by not allowing various forms of doubt about the truth to dominate you by avoiding selfish desires. These are the problems that we are faced with. The Late Imam Khomeini (RA), was a hakim or sage in the true sense of the word. When he would talk, wisdom would emanate from his heart in a continuous manner. He had said: “The month of Ramadan helps us distance ourselves from different kinds of lust, even conceptual, which is more difficult to control. Seeking power and pursuing ambitions are examples of conceptual lust. When we try to impose ourselves and have authority in all arenas of life, this is an example of conceptual lust. Piety begins from this point and it is extended to social affairs. In war, there is piety. In political activities, piety is essential. The same is true of economic activities. In these circumstances, the moves, words, actions, intentions and decisions of us officials of the country – who are in charge of different managerial positions – affect the fate of the people.

“This is where piety matters! That is why I said that piety for us is more important than ordinary people. Government officials are subject to close relations with the people’s rights. So, if they are impious, their rights will be trampled upon and then, there will be no time to make up for it. When we commit a personal wrongdoing and an act of oppression against ourselves, we repent, this way we make up for it, but when the people’s rights are trampled upon, how can you compensate for that?

“You should consider this as a managerial criterion. When you want to appoint someone for a particular position and when you want to entrust them with a task, you should consider this characteristic – having piety and commitment regarding the affairs of the people – as part of managerial competence. A criterion for managerial competence is to see if they are pious or not – that is to say, if they are trustworthy or not. If this happens, then God will be the most important criterion in all our decisions.

“In this condition, all your actions will become acts of worship. One of the advantages of working for the Islamic government and the Islamic administration is that if you work for God, your work will turn into acts of worship. The things you sign, the piece of paper on which you write and the words you say will turn into acts of worship.”

The Leader said: “There are two outlooks and attitudes in coming to power. This is the case about all those who come to power: one outlook is related to materialistic individuals who anticipate gaining power and holding office in order to satisfy their personal desires. On the basis of this outlook, a person tries to become president because through the presidency, they will have the opportunity to have a better life. In other words, gaining power is a means to satisfy selfish desires and to achieve wealth, lead a lustful life and gain the things that their selves demand. This is one outlook that has often been adopted by the followers of power. Because they were materialistic and pursued worldly desires, power would bring them those desires only and the results of such power are merely confined to this world.

“Another outlook is that of the prophets. About the Prophet of Islam, a narration says: “He would sit down in the manner of slaves and eat the foods that slaves would eat”. This means, despite the greatness of his status, he did not hold any privilege for himself in the way that he ate or in his friendly relations with others.

The Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS) says, “Realize that your Imam has contented himself with two coarse pieces of cloth out of the comforts of the world and two loaves for his meal” Of course, this does not mean that you and I can behave exactly as the Prophet and the Infallible Imam did, because we are not capable of doing that in any way. Imam Ali (AS) himself has said: Certainly, you cannot do so. But at least support me in piety”, that is, avoid the path of materialists.

“Thus, we should consider piety as our main goal, our main path and our main instrument. As for the issues of the country, there are many points about economic matters and I will raise some of them today. Well, today, the main problem of the country is the economic problem. The reason is the pressure that is exerted on the people, the pressure on the people particularly on underprivileged classes. Even the middle classes of society are under some pressure, but it is underprivileged classes which are under more pressure. Naturally, when a country has economic problems, the people and weak classes in society will be under pressure. In these circumstances, the enemy becomes greedy and gets his hopes high. If there is an economic problem and if there is lack of a good economic plan and economic progress in any country, its reputation will be damaged. Therefore, we should attend to the economy in a serious way. And I will tell you that there are no dead ends in the true sense of the word. There are problems and obstacles, but there are no dead ends.”

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution said: “Our enemies – headed by the US – have intensified the sanctions hoping that they can harm the Islamic Republic this way. As they themselves say, they have imposed unprecedented sanctions. They are right, the sanctions that they have imposed on the Islamic Republic are unprecedented. However, the important point is that the Islamic Republic is made of solid metal. A number of international analysts have acknowledged that if these sanctions and pressures had been imposed on any other country, they would have severely impacted them. But the Islamic Republic is solid thanks to its people, to divine grace and to the determination of the officials who are busy working in every corner of the country.

“The enemy has done its best to fulfil its duty. It has proved to be not short of malice and malevolence. The goal is to make officials surrender so that they change their calculations. In other words, they want our officials to surrender to the US and they want to pit the people against the Islamic Republic. This is the goal of the enemy.

“This is a wrong calculation. The US calculations are wrong. In the past as well the Americans have made certain calculations which have not brought them the desired results. They suffered a loss because of those calculations and they have failed to deliver the desired blow on the Islamic Republic.

“The same is true of the present time. They will definitely lose this time as well. There is no doubt about this, but the grudge that they bear against Islamic Iran has blinded them. In other words, it has wrecked their calculations and therefore, they cannot make correct calculations. Their grudge has really blinded them, otherwise, there are many individuals inside the US itself who are opposed to this malicious and savage way of dealing with Iran and Muslim and resistance groups, but their hands are tied. The current politicians in the US do not really have a correct understanding.

“I would, however, like to add that no one should be intimidated by the outward appearance of the US. This is really a mistake. We feel that some people are taken aback and intimidated by this apparent awe and by the fuss and uproar that the US kicks up. Superpowers further their goals like this: by kicking up a fuss. They are not as powerful as their uproar suggests. They create an uproar, kick up a fuss and issue threats. They try to frighten, but no one should be afraid.

“We should neither be intimidated by them, nor by the wealth of these Persian Gulf Korahs, who cannot do a damn thing. They have spent billions against us in different areas, but they have reached nowhere.”

Ayatollah Khamenei recalled that in 1979 when the Islamic Revolution triumphed in Iran, “the US was much stronger than today. Jimmy Carter, the then president, was much wiser than this person who holds office now and he was much more powerful. The current president is both less powerful – in both financial and political areas – and less intelligent. And they had an agent in Iran who dominated all affairs: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was their agent. He would work for them and he would support them.

“Nonetheless, the people managed to defeat the US with empty hands. You might say that those achievements occurred during the revolutionary era. Well, in the present time too, the Revolution still thrives. In the present time, enthusiastic revolutionary youth are not fewer in number than the day when the Revolution achieved victory, and they have more depth in terms of revolutionary thinking. This is how things are. You can see the examples of this during the various events that take place in the country such as revolutionary commemorations and celebrations. Today, that revolutionary move and enthusiasm is showing itself in the right place. Therefore, no one should be terrified by the apparent grandeur of the US.

“The issue of the economy of the country is our important issue for the moment. We should attend to this problem. Our economy is one of the largest economies in the world. Our economic infrastructures are good. We should organize and sort out management in a way that we can make the most of this asset. Our economy suffers from a few maladies. If we can cure them at this point – when we are faced with the issue of oil and with sanctions and the like – our economy will take a big leap.

“One malady is our dependence on oil. The grave flaw of our economy is dependence on oil. We extracted this substance from underground and we exchanged it for dollars without creating any value-added for this cash money – it is like cash money. And we used it for daily affairs. This is wrong! The National Development Fund that we established was for the sake of separating ourselves from oil step by step. In the present time, there is a good opportunity to do that. One of the tasks that should really be considered alongside macro planning by our economic officials is this: we should do something to decrease our dependence on oil on a daily basis.

“Another malady is the issue of the unnecessary intervention of government organs in the area of the economy. Article 44 of the Constitution was formulated for the sake of putting an end to this problem. Certain measures have been adopted, but what should really have been done in this regard has not been done yet. The administration’s role should be confined to supervision, control and guidance regarding those activities that do not need its direct involvement. The administration has to enter into certain activities and it has no other choice because no one other than the administration can do those activities, but it does not need to be involved in many other activities.”

The Leader pointed out: “Another malady is damaging the business environment. The various twists and turns and bizarre mazes and corridors in government organizations lead to damaging the environment of finance and business. This is another problem that we have. I have heard that in some countries in the world, it takes only half a day to set up a production business. However, there are many problems in our country. It is the Executive Branch and the Legislature and officials who are in charge of such affairs. They should facilitate the conditions of business.

“Another problem is carrying out structural reforms to the budget which was touched on by the President. It was decided that the Legislature and Executive, in cooperation with each other, would eliminate the structural hurdles regarding the budget in the first four months of the year 1398. Two months have already passed and only two months are left. This is one of those important and fundamental tasks that needs to be accomplished. And there are many issues on reforming the structure of the banking system. I have frequently discussed these matters with officials.

“We are able to work on reforming the structures at this point. This requires some brave management. Executive officials should get involved in this area with courage. They should not have considerations which violate their duties, the law and the interests of the country. I have written in my notes: courageous, hopeful and jihadi management accompanied by presence in the field in order to resolve problems. There are problems which cannot be understood sitting in one’s office and at the managerial desk. We should be present on the scene and in the arena to resolve the problems.

“I have also written: activeness in the face of the enemy and refusal to condition the economy of the country to the decisions of this and that person. This is an important issue. We should not make the country dependent on the whims of the US regarding extension of the waivers. We should not think of these matters in any way. This has been one of our problems since the beginning. This has happened frequently in recent years. We who are government officials, have delayed pursuing many of our activities to see what decisions the other side will make – something that is not in our hands.

“Well when we do this, such and such businessperson, investor and entrepreneur will act in the same way. Many important and necessary construction projects have been left idle to see what decisions others will make. This should not be the case. The economy should not be conditioned to the decisions of others.

That was the first part of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution’s memorable speech.

AS/SS