Khamenei: Ready to sacrifice myself
Iranian Supreme Leader writes: 'If God forbid, a bitter experience and test emerges for the nation we ourselves will put on combat fatigues and get ready for sacrifice'
The comments appeared under a special section of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting website entitled the 'Leader's stance towards Iran's peaceful nuclear activities.'
In the section, Khamenei dismisses what he calls "Western and Zionist" propaganda tricks against Iran.
"After the September 11 events of 2001 in the US when the twin towers in New York were suspiciously attacked there was no sign of the US president and senior officials for two or three days. They were lost! But we are not like that. If God forbid, a bitter experience and test emerges for the nation we ourselves will put on combat fatigues and get ready for sacrifice," the Iranian Supreme Leader declared.
Iranian servicemen 'incomparable' to US, Israeli soldiers
On Saturday, Khamenei told graduating Iranian military cadets that no comparison could be made between "Islamic servicemen and the violent and irrational servicemen of the United States or the Zionist regime," an Iranian government website which reports on Khamenei's viewpoints said.
Khamenei, who is also Iran's Commander In Chief of the military, visited new soldiers at Iran's Imam Hussein University, a military training center in Tehran.
"A Muslim serviceman is the one who is ready to make every sacrifice and even sacrifice his life for the sake of the noble Islamic objectives. Therefore, no comparison should be made between Islamic servicemen and the violent and irrational servicemen of the United States or the Zionist regime or other hegemonic powers," Khamenei said.
Khamenei added that the Iranian armed forces needed "to boost their ties with and reliance on Almighty Allah and also to raise the level of their training and preparedness," the website reported.
Meanwhile, Iran's 'international anti Zionist association secretary,' Hossein Kan'ani, said in a statement Sunday that Iran had recently increased "material and spiritual" support to Hamas, the Iranian Student News Agency reported.
"Iran's material and spiritual support which has perpetually been offered to the Palestinian nation has increased lately by the statements of Iran's Islamic Revolution leader and the President," Kan'ani said.
"We hope that the Hamas government can keep the resistance line up and attach other dominant regional forces in the resistance movement," he added.
'Israel, US won't attack'
On Saturday evening, Iran repeated declarations that Israel and the United States would not attack it, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting reported.
"We know that having learnt lessons from its recent adventurism in Lebanon, Israel is not in a position to attack Iran despite possessing over 200 nuclear warheads," Iranian National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani said.
"The US has weak points in the Middle East and will not dare to embark on another military engagement in the region," Larijani added.
Larijani, who is Iran's nuclear negotiator, also warned: "If the West imposes sanctions on Iran, it means that they are going to put obstacles in our path; thus, they will face the same kind of reaction."
