The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, in a meeting on Saturday (28th August 2021) morning with the president and his new government officials, emphasised the need for the government to use every opportunity to serve the people and called the reconstruction in all areas of the management focusing on "revolutionary, rational and wise" as of today's necessity. He made important points and recommendations about "being popular", "promoting justice", "being anti-corruption", "restoring public's hope and trust", and "cohesion and authority and nobility of the government" by referring to the economic issues as the priority.
He also called the United States in the arena of diplomacy, as a Predatory wolf, and by referring to the highly affecting situation in Afghanistan, said: "The Islamic Republic in any circumstances stands with the oppressed and Muslim nation of Afghanistan and our relations with governments depend on their relations and behaviour with us (Iran)."
At the beginning of his speech, Ayatollah Khamenei advised all officials of the government to appreciate the success of the service profoundly and thanked the parliament for its prompt and timely action in reviewing the qualifications of the proposed ministers and expressed hope that the formation of a new government would be a happy beginning for the nation.
In honour of the martyrs Rajai and Bahonar, he said: "The official period of their public service was short, but at the same time they showed that they came to the field with sincerity and intention to serve the nation by using simplicity and hard-working attitude, which is a great lesson for all officials."
The Supreme Leader of the Revolution called the situation in the country very difficult but emphasised: If you put tireless efforts on a daily basis, along with trusting and appealing to your Lord, you will definitely overcome the problems.
The Supreme Leader of the Revolution added: "As I have told all the previous officials, the opportunity of four years of service will end quickly. Therefore, even an hour of this opportunity, which is dedicated to the people as well as Islam, should not be wasted." Of course, while working hard and persevering, the family should not be neglected.
He said: it is necessary to move on the path of revolution and create revolutionary dynamism in all sectors such as "economic management, construction, public servicing, foreign policy, culture, education and other sectors". At the same time, he emphasised: Being revolutionary must be with rationality, intellectuality, and wisdom. This has been the way of the Islamic Republic from the beginning of it.
Explaining his first important advice to the government officials, the Supreme Leader of the Revolution referred to various manifestations of "being with people". He then added: "Going among the people and having a direct conversation with them is one of the outstanding aspects of being with people, which was shown by Mr Raisi in his visit to Khuzestan yesterday.
Ayatollah Khamenei has mentioned that having a simple lifestyle, just like ordinary people, behaving normally, avoiding luxuries, and avoiding looking people down are considered other manifestations of being with people. Moreover, he said: problems and solutions should be shared with the people. Instead of disappointing the people by telling them unrealistic words, the officials should seek intellectual and practical help from them.
"Quick apologies to the people in the event of a mistake" and honest and non-exaggerated reporting of activities to the people were other methods mentioned by the Supreme Leader in expressing various manifestations of being with people.
Advising the president and officials of his government to study the significant decree of the Amir al-Mu'minin, Ali (a.s) to Malik al-Ashtar, he added: "In this historical decree, various dimensions are stated as according to Islam, the relationship between the government and the people must be considered as brotherly and friendly."
Explaining "the promotion of justice" as his second essential advice to the government, Ayatollah Khamenei called the establishment of justice as the basis of the divine religions and a foundation for the formation of the government and added: "We are behind in this field and we must work hard to establish justice."
He emphasised: every decree, bill and decision of the government should have an attached file which shows the fairness of that bill or decision," and full care should be taken that this decree, bill, or decision does not harm the deprived people.
Ayatollah Khamenei called some of the management methods against justice and added: In distributing subsidies and any other thing, we should act so that the distance between the deprived people and the rich people is reduced, and the facilities are distributed as fairly as possible.
"Anti-corruption and accurate as well as a serious fight against corruption" was another critical piece of advice of the Supreme Leader of the Revolution to the president and his new government.
He said: "Anti-corruption is complementary to justice because corruption and its manifestations, including greed, acquiring unlawful positions, promoting unreasonable loved ones, are among the important evils against justice."
Ayatollah Khamenei, referring to Mr Raisi's fight against corruption as the chief justice, said: "this good deed has increased the people's hope and popularity, but it should be noted that the main place to fight corruption is in the Executive Branch of the government. The corruption has to be eliminated here." If the government cannot defeat it despite these precautions, then the judiciary must come in and deal with the corruption.
He called on the government to resolve the issue of conflict between personal and public interests in all institutions and added: "One of the manifestations of corruption is the violations in the implementation of policies motioned in Article 44, the correct execution of which could really flourish the country's economy, but unfortunately, It was not implemented correctly; as a result, the corruptions have come to exist.
The Supreme Leader of the Revolution considered monitoring and servicing systems as promising tools for the intelligent control of the government in the field of fighting corruption and said: "We have repeatedly recommended that these systems have to be provided and connected to each other, but this has no progress yet."
The following advice of the Supreme Leader of the Revolution was the fundamental issue of "restoring the trust and hope of the people."
Ayatollah Khamenei said: "People's trust is the biggest asset of the government, which unfortunately has been damaged to some extent, and the only way to restore it is:" is the words and deeds of the officials as one. "
He added: "One should be very careful in making promises and delivering speeches; if a promise is made, it must be fulfilled because making a promise and not fulfilling it will deprive people's trust."
By referring to the promises and orders of the president during his visit to Ahvaz yesterday, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution noted: "Care must be taken that these promises must be fulfilled."
Ayatollah Khamenei emphasised: If you made a promise and due to some problems, it was not possible to fulfil it, explain this issue to the people and apologise to them so that the people's would not be damaged.
Referring to the diversity of laws, plans and programs, he said: "One of the country's problems is the lack of serious follow-up system, so a date should be set for the promises so that they can be followed up and fulfilled on time."
The Supreme Leader of the Revolution mentioned "cohesion, authority and controlling power of the government" as other vital issues and added: Cohesion of the government means that different statements should not come out of the government and in practice, all institutions should act with cohesion, because any lack of cohesion and authority in the government, indicates to the people, that the government affairs are not in the hands of the officials. Then it stills the progress of government programs and policies.
Ayatollah Khamenei considered the controlling power to have accurate knowledge of the various parts of the government. By referring to Mr Raisi's plans to bring about change in the executive branch, he advised: transformation and moving towards progress requires lawfulness, transparency, financial discipline, prevention of conflicts of interest, and seriousness in making decisions and approvals.
He cited "rejuvenation of government " as another requirement for change, adding: "promoting Youth in the body and middle parts of the government will eliminate the feeling of obstruction in the country and will also provide valuable reserves for future senior and experienced managers."
The Supreme Leader of the Revolution considered one of the essential points in the transformation category to be "the use of collective wisdom and rationality" and said that the views of elites outside the government should be used regarding the change without considering political and factional differences.
Ayatollah Khamenei emphasised: "These recommendations should be turned into an action plan for change to be possible. Otherwise, it is useless to take advice and write notes."
The Supreme Leader of the Revolution then stated the main headings of the country's work priorities and said: The most crucial focus of the country is the economy at first, then the culture, media and science. Of course, there is an urgent issue too, which is the coronavirus and people's health.
Referring to the reasonable efforts made in the previous government in the field of health, including vaccines and their import, he considered the issues related to treatment, prevention, care and screening and general vaccination as very important and said: "One of the essentials is smart quarantine, profound control on borders to prevent the country from the entry of new varients of viruses.
The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution also mentioned the duties of the people to deal with Corona: people must accept four responsibilities: "face covering", "observing social distance", "the importance of ventilation and air circulation", and "washing their hands with soap". Indeed observing these things will be effective in reducing the current heavy losses.
Regarding the issue of the economy as one of the main priorities of the country, Ayatollah Khamenei called "high inflation, budget deficit, people's economic issues, devaluation of the national currency, reduction of people's purchasing power, business market issues and banking system" as critical economic problems. He enumerated and added: to resolve each of these problems, a plan should be made, and in the next stage, the economic officials of the government should act in coordination; that is one of the examples of governmental cohesion.
He said: "It is good to know that Mr President has appointed the first deputy in charge of coordinating the economic sector of the government, and it is hoped that it will be well managed, but if there is a disagreement, it should not be spread among the people because it will affect on the economic progress."
The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution considered paying attention to economic drivers and supporting them as a necessary act, such as the housing, steel industries, automobile, energy and petrochemical sectors. He stressed the need for coordination between those in charge of these sectors.
Regarding the control of the banking system, Ayatollah Khamenei referred to the issue of money creation and money supply and said: "Economic experts believe that currency should be printed in relation to production, and if this ratio does not exist, the printing currency should be stopped. As a result, inflation will be prevented, production will be boosted, employment will be increased, and the national currency will be strengthened.
In the field of economics, by emphasising courage, tactics and hard-working, he made two crucial points: Firstly, do not look for temporary and relieving solutions to solve economic problems; instead, follow the fundamental solutions. Secondly, do not postpone the resolution of financial issues to the lifting of sanctions, the plans to resolve the problems should be made assuming the existence of sanctions.
By emphasising the importance of the "culture and media" issue, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution called the cultural structure of the country defective and in need of revolutionary reconstruction. He added: Revolutionary movement means a fundamental movement, wise, prudent and arising from thought and wisdom, not an uncalculated movement.
By referring to the underlying and soft role of culture Ayatollah Khamenei, counted many mistakes such as wastefulness, blind imitation and luxurious lifestyle as the rotten cultural roots and stressed that these roots need to be corrected by using cultural tools, such as cinema, electronic (audio and video) and print media, and books. These tools must flourish.
Expressing satisfaction with the growth of a large number of youths interested in the field of culture, he called on the government's cultural departments to provide intelligent support to these young people and their initiatives. He furthermore noted: you should scout young talents and guarantee their freedom within the law. Of course, you have to tackle moral corruption in the field of culture without hesitation.
The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution added: "The primary way to fight the soft war of the enemy is to support the correct movements in the field of culture and encourage them, and to stand against the wrong movements. Today, the world is in the arena of cultural warfare between right and wrong, guidance and moral corruption.
In another part of his speech, Ayatollah Khamenei addressed the critical and influential issue of foreign policy and stressed the need for double mobility in foreign policy by saying: "the economic aspect of diplomacy must be strengthened, as in many countries the president himself pursues the diplomacy of economy, the country's economic diplomacy should be strengthened with this view.
He called for the expansion of foreign trade with 15 neighbouring countries, as well as many other countries in the world, except for one or two cases, and stressed that diplomacy should not be influenced by or linked to the nuclear issue because this is a separate issue that should be resolved in accordance with country's needs and suitability.
The Supreme Leader of the Revolution added: "The Americans have really crossed the limit of obscenity in the nuclear issue, and even though they left JCPOA in front of everyone, now they are claiming that the Islamic Republic has left the deal and its obligations, while until long after the withdrawal of the United States, Iran remained on the deal's obligations, and after a while, with the announcement and consideration, some and not all of their obligations were set aside by Iran.
He did not underestimate the European countries' role and the United States in sabotage and immorality. He noted that they are like the United States, but in terms of playing with language and words, they are always in the demanding position, as they talk in a way that it was Iran that mocked the negotiations and neglected talks for a long time.
Ayatollah Khamenei added: "The current US administration is no different from the previous administration because whatever it is demanding from Iran is the same, what Trump was demanding, but by using different language. The previous government officials on that day emphasised the irrationality of a matter; that is why they did not accept it.
The Leader of the Revolution called the Americans behind the scenes of diplomacy and behind the smile and professionalism of the right, as wild and predatory wolves and added: Of course, sometimes they are like cunning foxes, as it is reflected in the current situation in Afghanistan.
Ayatollah Khamenei called Afghanistan the brother country, where the language, the religion and the culture are the same as Iran, and expressed deep grief over the problems of the people, including the bomb blast incident at Kabul airport on Thursday (26/08/2021), saying: These difficulties and problems were Imposed on its people by the USA, as Americans occupied it for last 20 years and various injustice acts were imposed by them.
The bombing of weddings and funerals, the killing of young people, the unjustified imprisonment of many people, and the increase of mass drug production were some of the adverse effects of the American presence in Afghanistan, which the Supreme Leader pointed out. Moreover, he said: America had not taken even a step towards the betterment of Afghanistan. Today's Afghanistan is not ahead if it is not lagging 20 years ago in terms of civil and constructive development.
By referring to the disgraceful departure of the Americans and the transfer of their Afghan counterparts to areas worse than Afghanistan, he stressed the position of the Islamic Republic of Iran: "We support the Afghan people regardless of who is ruling because governments come and go as before, but the Afghan people are always there." And the type of relationship between Iran and its governments also depends on the kind of relationship they have with Iran. We ask God for goodness and salvation from this situation for the people of Afghanistan.
At the end of his speech, Ayatollah Khamenei prayed for the success of the Iranian nation and the new government and said: "We hope that by acting on what you have said, you will rid the people of their problems and satisfy them."
Before the speech of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, the president thanked the Islamic parliament for cooperating with the government in reviewing the qualifications of the proposed ministers and considered the issue of "corona" and "solving economic problems" as the main priorities of the 13th government.
Hujjat al-Islam wal-Muslimeen Raisi called the acceleration of public vaccinations and the provision of medicines needed by the people an essential program of the government, and referring to the economic challenges facing the government, including a very high budget deficit, said: The solution for inflation and providing the basic needs for the people are the two main priorities of the government in the arena of economic issues.
By referring to the experience of previous governments, the president stressed the need to recognise the weaknesses of previous governments and learn lessons from them, including the need to avoid relying on foreigners and also; he emphasised utilising the positive and valuable experiences of previous governments.