Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei: Gaza ‘pulse’ of Muslim world today; Gazans standing against tyranny, US

Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks in a meeting with a group of religious eulogists and elegists on Wednesday.

“The border of the Muslim world today is in Gaza, the pulse of the Muslim world beats in Gaza today, and the Palestinians there are standing against the world of disbelief, tyranny, arrogance and against the United States,” the Leader stated.

The Israeli regime has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip since October, martyring at least 22,313 people, most of them children and women. More than 57,000 others have also been wounded.

Regarding domestic issues, the Leader said, “Anyone who opposes the elections is opposing the Islamic Republic and Islam,” as Iran is gearing up for Parliamentary Elections slated for March 1, 2024.

“[Participation in] the elections is a duty. It is the duty for those following the path of jihad of clarification to create a sense of duty [among people] towards elections,” he said, invoking a term used to describe a campaign aimed at educating people on the conspiracies of the enemy.

Ayatollah Khamenei also denounced “hostile” attempts to undermine the nation’s role in the country’s management, which proves the realization of religious democracy in Iran.

The Leader further censured attempts aimed at demoralizing the people and making them distrustful by claiming that the elections in Iran are meaningless.

‘Soft power more effective than hard power’

Also in his remarks, the Leader said that soft power is more effective than hard power as the latter has immediate effect but wanes.

For more than 40 years, he noted, the Islamic Republic has relied on soft power more than the hard one.

“Of course, you know that I believe and follow up on … advanced weapons that match the needs and capabilities of the enemies. In my opinion, however, intellectual, linguistic and strong logical weapons should pervade among us along with hard power and weaponry might.”

Ayatollah Khamenei also said world powers such as the US have atomic bombs and all kinds of advanced arms, but they make investments in arts, cinema, and advertising as soft power.

“Hard power means that the US comes and stays in Afghanistan for 20 years and spends billions. In the end, it is forced to flee from Afghanistan due to the people’s hatred [towards it],” he added.

“Hard power means that the US comes and takes over the entire Iraq with equipment. It also overthrows the Iraqi government and sits in its place. After about 20 years, the most hated government in Iraq is the American government.”

The Leader noted that Palestinians have no weapons to defend themselves, but they have today attracted public attention through their patience, innocence and resilience.