No other country is as independent as Iran
• The revolution's main slogans and values involve independence, freedom, the rule of the people, national self-confidence, justice, above all realization of those values and application of religious laws. Our slogans have been preserved as fresh as early years of the revolution.
• In the world today, no country's independence equals to that of the Iranian nation. All nations of the world have some sort of compromise with major powers. The nation whose decisions are not influenced by any other nation is the Iranian nation.
• In our country, there exists freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and freedom of choice. No one with ideas and thoughts opposing the establishment is pressured, threatened, or persecuted by the establishment. However, freedom is observed within the framework of law and religion.
• During the year gone by, the Islamic Republic managed to raise the flag representing the Iranian nation's dignity and power in the region, which played a key role in defeating takfiri groups, bringing about security.
• The U.S. does not seek to create security in the region. They were in Afghanistan for 14 years. What on earth did they do there? Some say they didn't want to bring about security, others say they wanted to but failed.
• Our involvement in certain parts of the region was upon the request of those nations, we have taken measures based on logical and wise motives, rather than based on emotions. We did so without interfering with their domestic affairs or ordering them on what to do or not to do.
• The U.S.'s plot was to create and empower takfiri groups like ISIS, meant to send Muslim countries into a state of internal wars so that nations would forget about the Zionist regime. We managed to nullify that plot.
• Of issues regarding the region Middle East, the U.S. will, undoubtedly, fail to achieve its goals, and we will accomplish our intentions.
~ Ayatollah Khamenei’s annual speech at the Shrine of Imam Reza (as) on the first day of the Persian New Year, 1397, 21/3/2018
