At the end of the seventh congress of the fifth round of the Assembly of Experts on Leadership, members of this assembly met with the Leader of the Islamic Revolution—Ayatollah Khamenei—this morning September 26, 2019.
 
At the start of this meeting, the Leader of the Revolution commemorated the National Week of Sacred Defense and the lessons learnt from this brilliant era, as well as the need to spread and promote these lessons in the society, and added: Imam Khomeini’s reliance on the almighty God at the start of the war and during the 8 years of Sacred Defense, despite all the difficulties, shortcomings and pressures, was an astounding issue, and today we need to have a similar attitude, relying on God, on any arena.

Ayatollah Khamenei dubbed ‘hope for the future and trust in the youth’ as another of the lessons to be learnt by the Sacred Defense and held: We need to bring the youth to the center of the field, and should not forget their energy. Of course, employing the youth does not mean pushing the older ones to the margins. Because everyone has a place based on their experience and background.    

The Leader of the Revolution insisted that ignoring the youth and their force is a mistake, and the youth must help older forces, by stating that: One of the important indices during the Sacred Defense era was the presence of the youth in positions of power, and in the immense structure of Mobilized Forces [Basij], the Revolutionary Guards Corps, and the Army; and today, this opportunity has to be seized, and the youth should be employed in high and especially intermediate management positions.    

Insisting that the foundation of every affair in the country and the prerequisite for success in different fields is “persistence and resistance”, His Eminence added: Some issues need long time standing. Thus, we should not fear the immensity of the enemies’ front and their bullying. Rather, through persistence and resistance, we should prove, just like we did during the Sacred Defense era, that “We Can”.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution remarked that the enemy is trying to influence the minds of the decision-makers, and the people, in general, to induce “you can’t” and “it’s not possible” and said: Despite all the enemy’s efforts to deviate the minds of the people and the officials from the realities of the country, and to define our national interests and priorities based on their own goals, the capacities and abilities of the country are such that every economic clog and livelihood problem can be solved through wisdom, effort and accurate counsel.
His Eminence further held: Another point that they try to deviate the minds of the people and the officials from, is adherence to the slogans of the Revolution, and recently some European officials had said that Iran must let go of revolutionary slogans.
The Leader of the Revolution assessed the reason for stating such words and trying to inculcate such notions to be the fear of the United States and the Europeans from the Revolutionary slogans and the third alternative created by the Islamic Revolution, and declared: The cure for all problems and issues in the country lies in persistence on the Revolutionary path and mottos.
In this meeting, Ayatollah Khamenei highlighted the potentials for establishing ties with other countries of the world and asserted: One point about Europe and the foreign policy affairs is that we have not closed the door for establishing relations and negotiating with any country in the world, apart from the Zionist Regime and the U.S. We are indeed busy working and endeavouring.
The Supreme Leader once again urged the officials of the Islamic Republic to avoid relying on the European heads of states and held: But, as frequently mentioned before, we should not at all place hope and trust on anyone except for the domestic forces, in particular, not on those that have raised the flag of hostility against the Islamic Republic and the Islamic establishment, firstly led by the U.S., and next by the European countries.    
His Eminence warned his audience that the motives of these European states do not differ from the motives behind the U.S.'s actions, stating that: These few European countries openly show hostility to the Islamic Republic. Their motives for hostility with the Islamic Republic are not inherently different from those of the U.S.; even though, the U.S. is quite peculiar.
The Leader of the Revolution went on to say: [The Europeans] do not have the same capabilities, hegemony and facilities [as the U.S.]; but, the mentality of the European leaders is the same as that of the U.S. officials. They enter the scene as mediators, they negotiate, contact, make calls, make lengthy speeches, and make commitments, but they are not truthful.    ÷
Ayatollah Khamenei slammed the European partners of the Iran nuclear deal also known as JCPOA for submitting to the United States and giving in to the cruel sanctions imposed by the U.S. on Iran and maintained: Europe adhered to the U.S.'s cruel secondary sanctions and did not take any steps [against it]. I addressed the European leaders, saying: ‘you must act if you are honest.’
His Eminence referred to the European officials’ visits to Iran after the JCPOA and articulated: “After the nuclear deal, when several European officials came to our country, and met with us, I told some of them at the time, ‘these visits alone are useless; if you are honest and really want to work with the Islamic Republic, take action’; but they did not act upon it, as you noticed. And they all adhered to those secondary sanctions that the United States imposed without taking any steps [against it].”
Ayatollah Khamenei expressed lack of trust in the European partners of the JCPOA in implementing their commitments and stated: I still do not think they will do anything for the Islamic Republic in the future. We should not place hope on them. Communication, interaction and visits are fine; signing agreements with them is fine; but they cannot be trusted at all, as they have betrayed all their commitments.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution added: “The relevant ministers also said that they [the Europeans] did not fulfil any of the obligations of the nuclear treaty; this is what those who negotiated and signed the agreement have said.”
The Supreme Leader asked his audience rhetorically, “Which government in the world today is as abhorred as the United States is? I do not think any government. The Zionist regime may be somehow similarly abhorred, but the U.S. government is the most abhorred government in the world right now, according to the information that is reaching us from various sources.
His Eminence mentioned that even the European officials admit the West’s failure in reaching out to the world and held: The Europeans admit it themselves; a few days ago at the UN General Assembly, one of the European leaders gave an hour-long speech, indicating the fact that Western civilization and Western countries are declining. That is, those who are our enemies and are opposed to us also admit that they are declining.    
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution pointed to the statistics published by some international centers on the debts of major European states and said: “The economic problems of these countries are serious, and the political troubles of Britain and France are before the eyes of everyone, so we should take advantage of this opportunity.”
At the end of the meeting Ayatollah Khamenei hailed the Islamic Republic’s for regarding the public rights of the people as equal regardless of their religion and ethnicity, and continued: “Whether a person is a Muslim or a non-Muslim, a believer or an unbeliever in the Islamic establishment, his/her public rights must be protected; for example, insecurity should not exist in the country, and freedom and fairness should be equally provided for all the people.”