In these extracts, Sayed Ali Khamenei reveals the real reasons behind the Western persecution against Iran on the nuclear issue. It is useful to recall them at a time when in spite of Netanyahu’s raving, a deal seems closer than ever, especially as Iran’s voice is rarely heard.

 The hostility to Iran is actually due to the fact that it is a sovereign country which, since the Islamic Revolution Imam Khomeini in 1979, refuses to submit to the political, economic and cultural hegemony of the United States and reached independently a very high level of development. The nuclear issue is just an excuse because a fatwa of Imam Khomeini categorically prohibits nuclear weapons, sometha ruling that no one could challenge in Iran. Imam Khomeini and later Imam Khamenei openly declared the American imperial superpower and its Trojan horse Israel as implacable enemies, and worked crucially against their influence in the Middle East. These are their unforgivable “crimes”.

 By Sayed 7asan

Courtesy: khamenei.ir

Transcript : 

Supreme Leader’s Speech on the 19th Demise Anniversary of Imam Khomeini – March 6th, 2008

 Full speech: http://english.khamenei.ir/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=792&Itemid=4

 […] One of the reasons behind the enmity of the arrogant powers and the global plots against the Iranian nation regarding the nuclear energy and similar issues is our progress along with independence. As you can see, the Americans are pioneers and some Europeans follow suite in opposing the Iranian nation’s right to achieving nuclear energy. They keep threatening and being insolent. Meanwhile, they sign nuclear contracts with other countries that are far behind the Iranian nation in terms of their scientific knowledge and industrial means. What could this mean?

It means that when nuclear energy causes a nation to become dependent on them, they consider it legitimate for the nation. They are opposed to that sort of nuclear energy that is gained through a nation’s innovation and independently of their help.

Our dear youth and our great nation managed to achieve this advantage and this advanced industrial and scientific accomplishment by relying on their own capabilities. They did not bring about dependence. Rather they acted against dependence by doing so.

The sort of nuclear energy that is offered to other nations by arrogant powers is itself a cause of dependence. However, for the Iranian nation that manufactures creatively, nuclear energy prevents dependence. The global arrogance and the enemies of the Iranian nation are opposed to this. […]

 Supreme Leader’s Public Address on Eid al-Ghadir – June 16th, 2009

 Full speech: http://farsi.khamenei.ir/speech-content?id=101228

[…] Iran is just looking for the nuclear knowledge it needs. If the Iranian nation does not obtain this knowledge today, it will be too late to obtain it tomorrow. It will be too late in the future, the future in which global economy will revolve around nuclear energy instead of oil. They want the Iranian nation to stand idle, waiting for others to help it in the future. The entire nuclear issue boils down to this [nuclear knowledge]. I have said this repeatedly before. Today we are working in order to obtain the nuclear knowledge we need so that our children, our youth, our future generations, and the great Iranian nation will not be forced to beg this knowledge from the west in the future.

Oil belongs to us. We extract it from our own oil reserves and export it to western countries. But westerners are bullying us even in the case of oil! Today western governments are making a greater profit than the oil exporting countries out of the oil that is extracted from the oil wells of this region! Today oil belongs to us, and we have control over it. Yet westerners are bullying us.

Just imagine what will happen to the countries that will try to get nuclear energy from westerners in the future. That is what the Islamic Republic is thinking about, so it insists that Iran should obtain this nuclear knowledge and technology.

But they cause uproar in the world and ask us why we are trying to achieve nuclear knowledge. They spread slander and mislead global public opinion, claiming that Iran is after a nuclear bomb. [Audience shouts : “Nuclear energy is our indisputable right.”] Yes, Obviously. It is obvious that nuclear energy is an indisputable right of the Iranian nation. But the problem is that the global arrogant powers are using different kinds of machinations and propaganda techniques in order to deprive the Iranian nation from this indisputable right. […]

 Supreme Leader’s Inaugural Speech at the 16th Non-Aligned Summit – August 30th, 2012  

 Full speech: http://english.khamenei.ir/index.php?id=1668&option=com_content&task=view

[…] The Islamic Republic of Iran considers the use of nuclear, chemical and similar weapons as a great and unforgivable sin. We proposed the idea of “Middle East free of nuclear weapons” and we are committed to it. This does not mean forgoing our right to peaceful use of nuclear power and production of nuclear fuel. On the basis of international laws, peaceful use of nuclear energy is a right of every country.  All should be able to employ this wholesome source of energy for various vital uses for the benefit of their country and people, without having to depend on others for exercising this right. Some Western countries, themselves possessing nuclear weapons and guilty of this illegal action, want to monopolize the production of nuclear fuel. Surreptitious moves are under way to consolidate a permanent monopoly over production and sale of nuclear fuel in centers carrying an international label but in fact within the control of a few Western countries.

A bitter irony of our era is that the U.S. government, which possesses the largest and deadliest stockpiles of nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction and the only country guilty of its use, is today eager to carry the banner of opposition to nuclear proliferation. The U.S. and its Western allies have armed the usurper Zionist regime with nuclear weapons and created a major threat for this sensitive region. Yet the same deceitful group does not tolerate the peaceful use of nuclear energy by independent countries, and even opposes, with all its strength, the production of nuclear fuel for radiopharmaceuticals and other peaceful and humane purposes. Their pretext is fear of production of nuclear weapons. In the case of the Islamic Republic of Iran, they themselves know that they are lying, but lies are sanctioned by the kind of politics that is completely devoid of the slightest trace of spirituality. One who makes nuclear threats in the 21st century and does not feel ashamed, will he feel ashamed of lying?

I stress that the Islamic Republic has never been after nuclear weapons and that it will never give up the right of its people to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Our motto is: “Nuclear energy for all and nuclear weapons for none.” We will insist on each of these two precepts, and we know that breaking the monopoly of certain Western countries on production of nuclear energy in the framework of the Non-Proliferation Treaty is in the interest of all independent countries, including the members of the Non-Aligned Movement. […]

 Speech delivered by the Leader of the Revolution in meeting with students on “National Day of Fighting Against Global Arrogance”, March 11th, 2013

 About the nuclear talks with the West

 Full speech: http://english.khamenei.ir/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1837&Itemid=4

[…] We approve of the efforts that the honorable administration and the officials of the country are making. This is an important task and experience and it is most probably a valuable course of action. They can do this.

If they achieve results, then so much the better. But if they do not achieve results, this should mean that the country must stand on its own feet in order to solve its problems. […]