Basij Proves Vitality of Islamic Revolution: Leader

On the occasion of the Basij Week, a large number of Basij members met with Ayatollah Khamenei in the Imam Khomeini Husseiniyah of Tehran on Saturday morning.

Five million Basij members from across the country also participated in the meeting via videoconferencing.

In remarks at the event, Ayatollah Khamenei referred to the intentions and projects that the Western colonizers have had for the West Asian region, describing the Islamic Revolution as the phenomenon that shattered the Western colonizers' dreams for West Asia.

“The Basij culture is a culture of self-effacing, hardworking volunteers. It is a culture of humble, undaunted fighters, a sense of braveness, a sense of serving mankind, and a sense of serving the country. It means making sacrifices for others,” the Leader added.

“Being a member of the Basij means accepting that you will be oppressed in order to save the oppressed. You saw how the Basij were oppressed in recent unrest while protecting the Iranian people from the oppression of a group of rioters who were either unaware, misled or mercenaries,” Ayatollah Khamenei stated.

“Praise God, we have millions of registered Basij forces and millions more of unregistered volunteers in the country. There are millions of Basiji in the Muslim world in various countries. The heartfelt values of all these Basij are the same,” the Leader stated. 

“From the Westerners’ point of view, Iran had strategic depth in six countries. They had to be controlled by the United States and the imperialism before Iran could be dealt with. The governments of these six countries (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan and Somalia) had to fall,” Ayatollah Khamenei noted.

“Western colonialism has a certain line of approach toward this special region of ours – the West Asian region, the region they call the ‘Middle East’. Following the two world wars, Western colonialism - Europe first and then the US – paid special attention to this region and established a distinct approach to it. Why? Because it is an important region. The movement of the Western world’s industrial wheels is mainly dependent on oil. The world’s main center for oil is here (in this region),” the Leader added, according to Khamenei.ir.

“The region of West Asia links the east to the west. It is the region that connects Asia, Europe, and Africa. This is the most important issue in terms of its ‘strategic position’. Therefore, Western colonizers who had now gained wealth also gained new capabilities by looting the colonized countries in this region. They also made progress in science. They had advanced weapons too. They became particularly interested in the West Asian region, and that is why they created the usurping Zionist regime in this area. They established this usurping regime as a base for the West – for Europe first and then for the US – in order to be able to dominate the region, do whatever their heart desires, destroy countries, create wars, impose, spread out, and plunder. They created the Zionist regime for this very reason,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.