US pursuing passive positions against Islamic awakening: Khamenei

Islamic Republic News Agency:

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei on Saturday described US movements in the region as passive positions against the awakening of the Muslim nations.

Ayatollah Khamenei, in a speech at a ceremony to mark the 16th demise anniversary of the late founder of the Islamic Revolution Imam Khomeini, said Imam Khomeini had a significant contribution to weakening US dominance over the region.

He said Imam Khomeini's success in establishing the Islamic Republic in Iran and initiating the awakening movement among Muslim nations had led the US to take actions to rein in this movement through passive positions.

Ayatollah Khamenei said US military presence around Iran may in appearance indicate its power, but an analytical look at the developments in the region show that the US has taken passive positions against the Islamic awakening movement.

The Supreme Leader said the failure of the Great Middle East Initiative was a sign of such positions pursued by the US government to control the struggles of nations against its hegemony.

"The Americans know that they have no future in the Islamic world.
For this reason, they have resorted to passive positions to stop the Islamic awakening of nations from becoming revolutionary movements and also to delay the unquestionable triumph of nations," he told the ceremony at Imam Khomeini's Grand Mausoleum in southern Tehran.

This has been testified by the recent remarks of American officials about attacking Iraq, Ayatollah Khamenei said.

"The Americans have said that if they had not attacked Iraq, the pious Iraqi elements would have toppled Saddam in a short time," he said to the chants of "Death to America".

"This reality shows that their actions in the region are for the fear of the consequences of the Islamic awakening." Ayatollah Khamenei said another approach that the world powers, particularly Britain, have always pursued to confront the Islamic awakening has been encouraging disunity between the Shias and the Sunnis.

"The invisible hand of the Zionists and other foreigners in the bloody incidents and blasts in mosques and religious places ... is completely active," he said.

"All Muslim nations, particularly the people of Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan must promote their unity and solidarity and be aware of the plots of the enemies of Islam to foment discord among them." Elsewhere in his remarks, Ayatollah Khamenei underscored the importance of Iran's upcoming presidential elections. He hailed the efforts by the late Imam Khomeini to encourage elections as what had erased the wrong image that statehood is inheritable and monopolized in Islam.

The late Imam, the Supreme Leader said, had presented the true Islamic government to the world which was based on the presence and the choice of the people.

Ayatollah Khamenei said religious democracy, advocated in Iran, was different from the Western version of democracy, stressing that religious democracy is based on the heavenly right and obligation of people to determine their fate.

He also warned against the efforts by the enemies of Iran to discourage people from participating in the elections, and said people's strong turnout at the polls will present the "charming meaning" of the Islamic Republic to the world. READ MORE

This, Ayatollah Khamenei stressed, is what will strongly harm the enemies.