Leader urges elites in Muslim world to create public demand to cut ties with Israel

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the elites of the Muslim world shoulder a heavy responsibility vis-à-vis the ongoing developments in Gaza and should create a public demand to cut relations with the Israeli regime.

Speaking at a meeting with a group of commanders and personnel of the Iranian Air Force and Army’s Air Defense Force in Tehran on Monday, Ayatollah Khamenei cautioned against “humanitarian catastrophes” unfolding in Gaza following US support for the Israeli regime.

He stated that nations are capable of pressing their governments to end their support for the Israeli regime.

Although this “cruel and wolflike” regime has taken the lives of women, children and the sick and killed more than 20,000 people, some Muslim countries still provide it with economic aid and even weapons, the Leader noted.

“A decisive blow does not mean going to war with the Zionist regime (Israel), but it means cutting off the economic relations with it,” he said.

The meeting was held on the anniversary of a historic development that came days before the 1979 victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution that overthrew the former US-backed Pahlavi regime.

The event saw Homafaran, Pahlavi’s air force officers, breaking away from the monarchical regime and pledging allegiance to the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Leader warned of the enemy’s “specific plot” against the Iranian elites inside and outside the country, saying the enemy primarily seeks to prevent the elites’ growing role in the country and raise doubts among them.

He urged the Iranian elites to thwart the enemy’s plots aimed at raising doubts in the country.

Ayatollah Khamenei asserted that national power boosts national security, saying that the enemy’s plots will be neutralized when it witnesses the Iranian people’s presence and preparedness as well as the Islamic establishment’s power.

He added that the elites can play a major role in high-turnout parliamentary elections on March 1, whose outcomes, he contended, would boost national might.

He further said the elites’ negligence toward their duties would lead to a devastating blow to the Iranian nation.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Leader noted that before the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the air force’s military equipment and heads were under US control.

However, after the 1979 victory of the Islamic Revolution, the air force’s pious elements managed to change its US-controlled nature into an Iranian force, Ayatollah Khamenei said.

He added that although the force’s weapons and equipment were US-made in the immediate aftermath of the revolution, Iranian commanders and staff were the ones making decisions about the country.

The Leader also commended the Iranian people’s massive participation in rallies marking the victory of the Islamic Revolution that toppled the US-backed Pahlavi regime.

He said the Iranian people have taken to the streets in all cities and villages over the past 45 years without even a single pause and chanted slogans in defense of the Islamic Revolution while pledging their allegiance to Imam Khomeini.

Ayatollah Khamenei hoped that Iranians would largely participate also in this year's rallies on February 11, which indicate national strength.

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