Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei said the US’s deep animosity with the Islamic Republic stems from the Iranian people’s religious zeal, adding that the religious zeal has saved the country in different times.

“Maintain this religious zeal.

The factor of saving the country in different trying times is the religious zeal of the Iranian nation.

It is the religious zeal that turns threats into opportunities,” Imam Khamenei said in a speech on the anniversary of the popular uprising in the holy city of Qom against the former US-backed Pahlavi regime in 1978.

“An example of this was the eight-year imposed war and defense, in which the religious zeal of the youth, fathers, mothers, sisters and wives led the youth to go to the front and win this international war, in which they all worked together to defeat the Imam and the movement.

The source was this religious zeal,” the Leader said, according to Press TV His eminence was referring to the war of the 1980s by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein who invaded Iran with the support of the US and other countries in a bid to stamp out Iran’s nascent revolution led by the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini.

“At the present time, no one thought that – and even our friends did not think that the martyrdom of Martyr Suleimani which was really a historical and unusual event this incident would assume this much magnificence and that God Almighty would give it glory and exhibit the real identity of the Iranian people and their unity under the coffin of Martyr Suleimani to everyone,” the Leader said.

Several millions of people turned out in Iranian and Iraqi cities for the funeral of the highly charismatic commander to pay tribute to him and his companions assassinated in the terrorist act and vent their anger at the US when his cortege moved to his final resting place in January 2020.

Ayatollah Khamenei further said, “The martyrdom of a great figure like Martyr Suleimani was a threat from the enemy’s point of view, but the zeal of the Muslim nation of Iran turned this threat into an opportunity that everyone saw.” “The wrong calculations of the United States are still going on, and the example of this is the martyrdom of Martyr Suleimani,” the Leader said.

“They thought that by eliminating this martyr, the great movement of the Iranian nation would be extinguished, but we saw the enormous movement that took place this year on the second anniversary of his martyrdom.

The January 9, 1978 uprising in Qom is seen as a very important historical juncture in Iran because it acted a precursor to more mass demonstrations in other cities across Iran, shaking the foundations of the despotic Pahlavi regime before finally toppling it in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.