Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei:

"Today there are those who regard us as the world's fourth superpower.

Of course, they say this on the basis of worldly calculations; but by divine calculations, a country that considers itself to belong to the Pure Household [of the Prophet] — may God's blessings and peace be upon them all — whose people are for the most part devoted to those exalted ones, and who fear nothing in upholding the truth, is accounted the first power in the world.

In the past, the two seas of southern Iran were the roaming ground of enemy forces; but in these days, because of the painful blows they have suffered from the valiant warriors and the guardians of the Strait of Hormuz, they do not venture past the Arabian Sea — and whenever they have dared that danger, harm has come to them; and soon the Arabian Sea, too, will empty itself of them.

There was a time when the domineering powers, through psychological operations and the spread of an atmosphere of terror, emptied the streets of the capital, mounted a coup against this nation's drive for independence, and then plundered this country's wealth for twenty-five years.

But these days, for seven months now, our compatriots across the whole country have graced the squares and streets with their responsible and passionate presence, so that the hearts of the warriors of Islam are warmed and the enemy is plunged into dread.

Just as more than thirty million Iranians declared their readiness to sacrifice their lives — and when a certain mobilization required them to re-register their willingness to serve, in just the first one hundred minutes more than five hundred thousand people filled the entire requested capacity...

There was a time when the bravery of the people of this land was known through its men; but we are now in days when, in some arenas of courageous presence, the women are outpacing the men.

There was a time when the enemy strove to weaken, year after year, the social rearguard of the system; but in these days, every stratum of society, with all their manifest differences, stands fast on its rightful positions — among them the defense of the blessed and bounteous Strait of Hormuz.

This comparison between former days and the present day could be stretched out and explained much further; but in a word, I declare, as a servant of the dear people of Iran, that those former days, to which our enemy dreams of returning, have passed — and they will never be repeated.

And yet I must recall, with grief and sorrow, that in these days the absence of Khomeini the Great and of the exalted martyr Khamenei — may their noble stations be exalted — to whose leadership this country's present dignity is indebted, is sorely felt.

But by the blessing of the precious treasure their conduct and their brilliant, guiding words have left behind for their followers, the days to come will be far more magnificent than these days.

For that phoenix, which rose out of the burning pyre of the first imposed war, has now, under the enemy's pressures and especially the two recent imposed wars, grown so great that the shadow of its flight has fallen even upon the lands of the enemy."