Iran’s Supreme Leader says Israel will be defeated

Iran Focus:

Tehran, Iran, Oct. 31 – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on the country’s officials to be united in one front against the “common enemy” as he reaffirmed that the state of Israel would eventually be toppled, state-run dailies reported on Monday.

Khamenei told a meeting of senior Iranian officials that they had a duty to avoid falling into the “traps and plans of the enemy”.

He said that the “enemy had put immense effort in recent years to create divisions and cracks” among the country’s rulers. “Fortunately, certain officials were vigilant and stood up against this plan”, the Supreme Leader said.

Khamenei highlighted the fact that the heads of Iran’s three power branches – the government, the Majlis (Parliament), and the judiciary - had become unified in their stances.

Iran’s Majlis is dominated by ultra-conservatives including some 90 former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officials. Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – who has himself been a senior Revolutionary Guards commander – has a cabinet filled with former IRGC and Ministry of Intelligence officials. Iran’s judiciary frequently comes under scrutiny from international human rights organisations for handing down sentences hands contrary to basic human rights principles.

Khamenei called on officials to identify threats by “the enemies of the state”. “By recognising precisely these plans, we must tackle them wisely and astutely defend the nation and national interests and identity”.

He warned countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan that the United States was seeking to create a new world order in the region and would turn on them after dealing with Lebanon and Syria.

He said that “continuous commotion” over Iran by the United States was because of the Islamic Republic’s strategic location in the Middle East.

He defended the recent position taken against Israel by Ahmadinejad, who had called for the Jewish state’s destruction, and denounced the international community’s defence of Israel as “shameful”.

“It is the resistance in Palestine which will undoubtedly lead to the fall of the Zionist regime”, Khamenei said.