Iran’s resistance to West-backed Saddam regime inspired global movements: War veteran

By Alireza Hashemi

The memory of the eight-year war imposed by then-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on Iran with the support of Western states continues to inspire resistance movements, says a war veteran.

The imposed war was launched in September 1980 and ended with a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1988.

Azim Ebrahimpour, a veteran and narrator of the eight-year war, in a conversation with the Press TV website, said Iraq at the time acted as a Western proxy, launching the war in a bid to break the will of the revolutionary nation that had just toppled the US-backed monarchy of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

“The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran occurred at a time when the world was a scene of a duality of the dominant and subservient countries and the arrogant system was looting the riches of weak nations,” the war veteran stated.

“The revolutionary Iran became a pioneer of resistance against the arrogance system, hence posed a mortal threat to that system,” he added, explaining the West’s motivation for inciting Iraq to attack Iran.

Iran this week marked the anniversary of the war, known as sacred defense, which saw week-long events across the country, including a massive military parade in the capital Tehran.

Paying rich tributes to the martyrs, Ebrahimpour said Iran not only faced Iraq in the war but the whole Western arrogance system and the Zionist regime and their allies, which totaled 36 countries.

“We didn’t fight the Iraqi dictator alone but many other countries were involved. Iraq’s allies didn’t send troops but provided all kinds of weapons and spared no chance to bolster its war effort,” he noted.

“The whole arrogant lobby rushed to Iraq’s help to destroy the Islamic Republic but to no avail.”

Explainer: How did US-backed Saddam regime’s war against Iran unfold, end?

Iran is commemorating Sacred Defense Week when the Iraqi Baathist regime and its foreign backers in September 1980 launched a no-holds-barred war against the Islamic Republic.

Ebrahimpour stated that Iran’s successful resistance against the Iraqi invasion was rooted in Imam Khomeini’s leadership skills as well as the nation’s resilience in the face of pressure.  

“Despite all efforts by enemies to shake the system and to separate the nation from revolutionary leaders, the leadership skills of the founder of the Islamic Republic combined with the resilience of the nation produced incredible achievements,” he hastened to add.

The war veteran said the arrogant system’s plot to eliminate the Iranian revolution eventually backfired and led to the awakening of many nations that were long subjects of Western loot and exploitation.

According to Ebrahimpour, Iran proved during the eight-year war that people really could stand up to the West’s bullying, encouraging nations to follow in its footsteps. 

“Iran didn’t lose even an inch of its land in this confrontation with 36 countries and its resistance became a model for nations and led to the formation of an ever-growing resistance front in West Asia and even other regions,” he told the Press TV website.

The prominent narrator of the eight-year war said this resistance model continues to inspire movements across the world, citing the recent political upheavals in African countries.

“In African countries like Niger, we see nations that have long been oppressed by colonial Western powers are moving to oust Western-backed rulers. This is a clear example of how the resistance front has inspired others to confront Western hegemony,” he affirmed.

With the US on the decline and its economic domination weakening, the world is seeing a power shift from the West to the East, which heralds a bright future for the resistance front, Ebrahimpour said.

He further said that Imam Khomeini viewed the Iraqi war against Iran as a fight between good and evil, and believed this confrontation would continue in the future in various forms.

“Imam Khomeini saw the war as a fight between the good and evil. In the 1980s, the whole evil front tried to eliminate the good’s center of gravity, the Islamic Republic of Iran. But they couldn’t make it.”

“Imam Khomeini, in his public message to the Iranian nation at the end of the Iran-Iraq war said this fight continues until the good triumphs over the evil. This explains the reason behind ongoing bitter enmity towards Iran.”

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk