Anniversary of the Zolfaghari Operation in Abadan

This is a translation of the original Persian text. Original text in Persian

بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم
In the Name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

Aban 9 marks the anniversary of the popular epic and the valiant operation of the combatants of Islam against the Baathist aggressors, which drove them out of the island of Abadan only forty days after the start of the first Imposed War in 1359.

This momentous epic, regarded as the first victory of the Iranian nation in the eight-year Sacred Defense and one that has seldom been spoken of, was named the Zolfaghari operation, and it holds many lessons, for all times, in confronting the enemies and aggressors against our Islamic homeland.

In those days, Iraq was ruled by a despot who bore no true relation to the beliefs and traditions of its people and who, contrary to the ethos of the noble Iraqi nation, which rightly shares a bond of brotherhood with the people of Iran, imagined that by raising certain slogans and hollow claims he could sever the deep bond between the two nations, a bond whose history rests on a shared faith and on love for the Household of Infallibility and Purity (may God’s blessings and peace be upon them all).

Then, as with today’s enemy, the Baathist enemy resorted to the familiar methods of aggression, occupation and siege, and the way to confront him effectively and defeat his sinister plan lay in the vigilance of the people and of devoted forces ready to sacrifice their lives, and in their courageous steadfastness alongside the valor of the brave men of the Army and the IRGC.

On that day, a simple and zealous Iranian worker, with self-sacrifice and at the risk of his life, alerted the people to the enemy’s sinister plan, and a group of popular forces and mosque-goers of that region, with faith and divine motivation and with the barest of means, entered the field of struggle under the guidance of the devoted and self-sacrificing mujahid Friday prayer leader of Abadan, the courageous scholar who practiced what he knew, the late Ayatollah Jami (may God have mercy on him).

This popular movement made the aggressor enemy, armed with advanced weapons, regret its deeds, and before long a chain of the diverse peoples of the Iranian nation, from north to south and from east to west, came together to defend the borders of Islamic Iran, until, less than a year later, by God’s grace and at the command of the Imam of the Ummah (may God sanctify his noble soul), the siege of Abadan was broken.

And today as well, it is that same vigilance and faith, that same motivation and will, that same devotion and self-sacrifice, and that same zeal and steadfastness which, under the favors of God, the Truth (Exalted and Majestic is He), and the attention of our Master (may God the Exalted hasten his noble reappearance), are aiding the oppressed and powerful nation of Iran in confronting the domination, crimes and aggression of the Great Satan and in attaining victory in the third Imposed War.

«وَما النَّصرُ إِلّا مِن عِندِ الله العَزیزِ الحَکیمِ.»
“And victory comes only from God, the Mighty, the Wise.” (Quran 3:126)

Sayyid Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei
Aban 9, 1405