Supreme Leader: Enemy seeking to tarnish image of IRGC

“One of the most important parts of the enemy’s activities is to try to tarnish the image of the IRGC and the Basij [volunteer forces],” Ayatollah Khamenei said during a Thursday meeting with a group of IRGC commanders in Imam Khomeini Husseiniya, Tehran.

“Why?” he continued. “Because the IRGC is attractive. The Basij is attractive. This attractiveness makes them worried and overwhelmed.”

Therefore, they are forced to resort to fake news, rumors, lies, and all sorts of trickeries and deceits in order to tarnish the image of the IRGC, he maintained.

They want to curb its far-reaching impact, he added.

Biggest anti-terror organization in world

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Supreme Leader noted that the IRGC was a phenomenon unprecedented in the great revolutions of history and was unlike other military organizations formed after those revolutions, which were “destructive, arbitrary, undisciplined, and lacked adherence to principles.”

“Throughout the country’s history, I know of no military group that had such spiritual, moral and political health,” he said of the IRGC.

According to Ayatollah Khamenei, the IRGC did not stop in its path and move forward to become the greatest, most equipped anti-terror organization in the world.

“Today, the IRGC is the biggest anti-terror organization in the world,” he said. “It is a well-equipped military organization. It is an efficient and independent organization that can do things that many big armies in the world cannot do.”

‘Do not make mistake in recognizing enemy’

Ayatollah Khamenei also cautioned against mistakes in recognizing the enemy, recalling that the late founder of the Islamic Revolution Imam Khomeini would urge others to direct all their anger at the United States.

He then said all Iranian authorities have the duty to work hard day and night. 

“Our duty today is to help the people, especially the lower classes,” he said, before lauding the IRGC’s activities and constructions throughout the country.

“We have few organizations that have been able to do this amount of work with lower costs than usual and at a faster speed than usual in the infrastructure of the country, roads, highways, dams, refineries and so forth,” said the Supreme Leader.

Pointing to the public services of the IRGC, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “The IRGC stood by the people in different sectors. In the health sector, which is very important, the IRGC was able to do great things. It provided essential help in natural disasters and calamities such as earthquakes, floods, coronavirus, and so forth.”

He added that the elite military force has also done extensive works in fighting deprivation, most of which have remained unknown so far.