The Sweet Fruits of Holy Defence

By: Kayhan Int’l

When the US launched the invasion of the newfound Islamic Republic through Saddam of the repressive Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad on 22 September 1980 it was fully confident that soon Iran will be back in American orbit, especially after the fall of the crucial port city of Khorramshahr to the invaders and their siege of Abadan where the region’s largest oil refinery was located.

To the horror of Washington – as well as London, Paris, Bonn, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Moscow, and other centres of the western capitalism and eastern communism – the Iranian people fresh from their victory over the Pahlavi potentate fought back with renewed religious-nationalist vigour, thanks to the spirit of indomitable resistance breathed into the nation by the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA) who aptly called it “Holy Defence”.

Today, when Saddam is no more, the Soviet has long disintegrated, Zionism is on its last legs, and the flawed system of western liberal democracy is struggling for survival, the Islamic Republic which neither collapsed nor went into American orbit, is celebrating the 43rd anniversary of the Holy Defence Week and sending satellites into the Earth’s orbit to meet Iran’s intelligence needs in a wide variety of fields, including meteorological, geological, telecommunications and military.

It is a far cry from the Iran of the 8-year imposed war of the 1980s when its troop movements and defence capabilities were vulnerable to US AWAC (Airborne early Warning and Control) – an airborne radar system – and satellites orbiting the Earth and passing vital information to the Ba’thist invader.

Having triumphed over heavy odds, Iran now regularly sends satellites into outer space and the latest one, is the Noor-3, also known as Najm, which was sent into orbit 450 km from the Earth’s surface using the locally manufactured Qased Satellite Carrier. 

Iran, self-reliant in almost all fields of modern science and technology, has also developed the ability to detect future threats from air and space such as the entry of hypersonic missiles.

This spectacular progress of Iran is in accordance with the commandments of God Almighty in the Holy Qur’an to the believers: 

“Prepare against them whatever you can of [military] power and war-horses, awing thereby the enemy of Allah, and your enemy, and others besides them, whom you do not know, but Allah knows them...” (8:60)

Islam, however, frowns upon aggression and considers the killing of any innocent person as the killing of all humanity. The Islamic Republic adheres to these injunctions and in the words of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution: 

“As a truly Islamic state Iran has stated in clear terms that the manufacture of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction (wmds) is “haraam” (religiously forbidden), but on no account will it stop its progress in the conventional defence field.”

Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, has said “the enemies of Iran are opposed to the country’s defensive and military strength; are opposed to the expansion of the Islamic Republic’s power among and beyond regional nations, because this is an element of power and because this is the strategic depth of the country.

He has also ruled out any compromise in this regard and saying that gone are the days when Iran, despite its rich history and the endless talents of its youths was made by the former regime to bow down to American, Zionist, English and other agents of imperialism, made it clear:

“Security is essential for the progress of the country in all fields, because if security does not exist, then scientific, industrial and economic achievements will not exist either. If security does not exist, tranquility, peace of mind and psychological comfort will not exist for the people either.”