Tehran, March 04: A senior cleric says Iran has inspired the recent revolutions in the Arab world by standing out as the “safest, calmest and most sovereign” country in the region.
“Whether arrogant [powers] like it or not, this is a reality that the recent uprisings in the region are modeled after the Islamic Revolution in Iran,” Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami said on Friday.
In his sermon, Tehran’s interim Friday Prayers leader referred to the role of religion and Islamic beliefs as a common point in the 1979 revolution in Iran and the recent uprisings in countries across North African and the Middle East.
“The arrogant [powers] are trying to tarnish the example that has been taken from Islamic Iran whereas Iran is the safest, calmest and most sovereign country in the region,” media quoted Ayatollah Khatami as saying.
The cleric blamed the West for making attempts to falsely suggest that there is unrest in Iran by nurturing “counter-revolutionary” elements.
Khatami condemned the violent crackdown on popular protests in Libya and compared the bombardment of protesters to the massacre of Iraqis under former dictator Saddam Hussein.
He further lashed out at France, Italy and the United States as old allies and supporters of Libya’s long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi.
“On the first days of the popular revolution in Libya, they supported the Libyan executioner,” he said in reference to Gaddafi. “But when the revolutionaries took control of oil wells…they turned against Gaddafi.”
Ayatollah Khatami described attempting military intervention by Europe or the US in the region as “entering a quagmire, which would result in the revolutionary people turning your (the Western leaders’) days into dark nights.”
——Agencies