Iran’s Ayatollah: America is the ‘Enemy.’ ‘We Will Confront Them With All Our Power’

Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, gave a speech on Aug. 17 in which he said that the United States of America was the “enemy” and that Iran would confront the United States with all its power.

"We will not allow the Americans to have economic or political influence in our country, nor will we allow them to have a political presence and cultural influence in our country," said the ayatollah. "We will confront them with all our power which is thankfully great in the present time.

In the same speech, which has been posted in English on the ayatollah’s official website, the ayatollah said that “it is not clear” whether the agreement designed to forestall Iran’s development of nuclear weapons will in fact be approve by either the United States or Iran.

Here are some key excerpts from the ayatollah’s speech as posted in English at Khamenei.ir:

“First, I will tell you that when we say, ‘the enemy’ we do not refer to an imaginary and fictional creature. By ‘enemy’ we mean global arrogance and arrogant powers: powers whose existence depends on dominating others, interfering in their affairs and possessing their financial and vital resources. These are arrogant powers or in other words, the leaders of global arrogance….

“If we want to give an example of who this enemy is in the outside world, we should refer to the regime of the United States of America. This regime is the epitome of global arrogance. Of course, others are part of global arrogance as well, but the clearest and the most obvious example is the regime of the United States of America. It knows nothing about human morality and it is not ashamed of committing any crime--of any nature. It covers these crimes, pressures and violent acts behind its smiles and its good and beautiful words. The manifestation of global arrogance is this regime. Therefore, when we say, "the enemy", it means this.

“This enemy's plan in the region is mainly based on two things. Of course, it has many branches, but these are the main two. One is creating discord and the second it exerting influence. …

“Of course, the English were the first experts of this measure. They have expertise in creating religious discord. The Americans have learned this from them and they are working on it today with all their power. …

“Today in the region, America does not enjoy the reputation that it did in the past and therefore, it wants to retrieve it. They have the same intention in our country. They have the same intention in Iran. They thought that they could use the nuclear negotiations to exert influence inside our country. Now, the fate of this nuclear agreement is not clear either in Iran or in America. It is not clear whether it will be approved or not in both countries. They wanted to use it as a means to exert influence in our country, but we blocked their path and we will definitely block their path in the future as well [audience chant "Allahu Akbar"].

"We will not allow the Americans to have economic or political influence in our country, nor will we allow them to have a political presence and cultural influence in our country. We will confront them with all our power which is thankfully great in the present time. The same is true of the region. In the region too, they want to exert influence, have an excuse to show their presence and pursue their goals. By Allah's favor and grace, we will do our best to prevent this. Our policies in the region are the exact opposite of the Americans.”

Credit to CNS