Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Friday, Oct 03, 2025

Leader: Sacred Defense Shows Invading Iran Is Very Costly

Sacred Defense Shows Invading Iran Is Very Costly

Ayatollah Khamenei said Iraq’s 1980-88 war with Iran showed the country can defend itself and that aggression on the Islamic Republic would be very costly.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Monday said Iraq’s 1980-88 war with Iran showed the country can defend itself and that aggression on the Islamic Republic would be very costly.

“Trying for eight years, doing everything they can, and yet achieving nothing – is there a greater victory for Iran?” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a televised video address to top military commanders and war veterans across the country, delivered at the beginning of “Sacred Defense” week marking the war’s 40th anniversary.

The Leader said despite some attempts at casting doubt over Iran’s victory in the war, it should be known that the country’s triumph is “as bright as the sun” as neither did it lose a hand-span of its soil, nor did its leadership take a single step back.

“The Sacred Defense showed that aggression toward this country is very costly,” he added.

“When a nation shows it has the power and determination to defend itself… it causes the aggressor to think twice before attacking,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Iran a year and a half after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, triggering the war that was eventually brought to an end through a UN-brokered cease-fire.

Ayatollah Khamenei said the conflict had made Iran’s revolution “much stronger” than it had been before.

The Leader said the defensive struggle equipped the Iranian nation with a sense of self-belief in its ability to fend for itself and put it on a course of technological and scientific development because it had to wade into many new areas to be able to buttress its defense capability.

The war taught us that “some things that appear to be impossible, are actually possible,” Ayatollah Khamenei stated.

He also slammed Western powers for having armed Saddam while depriving Iran of aid, saying it showed “the truth and the nature of Western civilization.”

The Leader recalled how Western countries would equip the aggressors with chemical weapons, thus going back on all of their human rights claims.

While specifying the actual goal of the warmongers as being the destruction of the country’s Islamic Revolution and its Islamic establishment, the Leader noted that Saddam and his Ba’ath Party were just being used as “tools by powers, such as the United States, that had suffered serious blows from Iran’s Revolution.”

Others, like the Soviet Union, the Western military alliance of NATO, as well as some other Western and even European countries also contributed to the war because they were “concerned” about the emergence of a new phenomenon in the region that had been founded upon religion, he said.

The Leader called on officials to preserve the memory of the war as “part of the national identity” of Iranians by creating works of literature on a global scale.

This year, Iran canceled a military parade held annually to mark the war’s anniversary due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 24,400 and infected over 425,000 in the country since March.

Ayatollah Khamenei urged Iranians to better observe health protocols such as social distancing and wearing masks, noting that the virus kills around 150 people every day in the country.

“Suppose a plane with 300 people on board crashes every two days and everyone dies. Is this a small thing?” he said.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×