Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Leader of the Islamic Revolution, on Sunday and in the run-up to the Sacred Defense Week (which marks the beginning of Iraqi invasion of Iran and the outbreak of eight years of the Imposed War in 1980) met for two and a half hours with a group of war veterans with spinal cord injuries, and war veterans with more than 70% of physical disability that have lost both their eyes or one or two of their limbs, along with their families, and heaped praise on them in a friendly atmosphere.

After meeting with the war veterans and their families, Ayatollah Khamenei briefly spoke about the sufferings and physical problems of water veterans, saying they will be doubly and increasingly rewarded for having passed this difficult test. 

Ayatollah Khamenei added: “The war veterans are depiction and an image of the time of big affliction [which was endured] by the Iranian nation during the Sacred Defense period, and their presence in the society is, in fact, [aimed at] giving voice to historical, cognitive political and international facts.” 

Ayatollah Khamenei said: “On the one hand, the war veterans are [telltale] signs of the crimes [committed] by the [world] powers who supported [former Iraqi dictator] Saddam [Hussein], while on the other hand, they are proof to the grandeur and greatness of the late Imam [Khomeini] and the [Islamic] Revolution, which managed to nurture such prominent humans and send [them] to the warfronts.”

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution described the patience of the wives of war veterans and their tolerance for the suffering and hardship of serving the war veterans as genuine sacrifice and a [form of] jihad and epic, while recommending the wives and children and relatives of war veterans to safeguard this great spiritual wealth and to take care of it.  

Prior to remarks made by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Hojjatoleslam Shahidi Mahallati, the Leader’s representative and head of the Foundation for Martyrs and War Veterans’ Affairs, presented a report on the services provided by this foundation to the war veterans and the families of martyrs, saying: “Extolling the war veterans is, in fact, extolling the valiant epic makers, who became a role model and taught combatants [across the world] how to fight international bullying powers.”

Meanwhile, Major General Mohammad Ali Ja’afari, commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, referred to holding of the second national congress for the commemoration of the war veterans, saying: “The war veterans wearing the medal of honor for being war veteran will never consider the crucial responsibility of safeguarding the Islamic Revolution and its achievements terminated, and by presence in different arenas, they will carry out their mission with firm determination.”