Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei inspected an army base in Tehran where he met with a group of Army commanders and was briefed on the activities of the Ground Force.

The visit to the army base started with the IR Leader reciting the first sura of the Holy Koran in homage before a memorial put up in commemoration of the memory of the martyrs of the eight-year Sacred Defense (1980-88).

Ayatollah Khamenei then inspected an exhibit of the Army's research and engineering activities and talked through video conference with units of army situated in Abuzar garrison in Sarpol Zahab, west of Iran and an aerial logistics unit situated in Zahedan, southeast of Iran.

The Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces then held a meeting with the ground force's operational units where he delivered a speech, saying that the IRI Army must above all boost its faith as source of motivations and that faith in God would generate a strong and effective motivation.

Ayatollah Khamenei said such profound motivation could be seen in faithful and brave individuals at sensitive times and that the victory of the Armed forces during the eight-year Sacred Defense against the fully-equipped, superpowers-backed Baathist army of Saddam Hussein was a fruit of the faith-based motivation.

Ayatollah Khamenei then advised the military commanders to boost their knowledge and personality and at the same time cut on their worldly desires. The IR Leader also instructed the commanders to boost military training in the Ground Force. 

Following his speech, Army Commander, General Sayyed Ataollah Salehi delivered a report on the army's activities and records. Commander of the Ground Force, Brigadier General Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan too delivered a repot on the status of the Ground Force's units nationwide.

Ayatollah Khamenei then held a meeting with top commanders, cadets and staffs of the Army's Ground Force where he described the IRI Army as a popular, national body and a divine, Islamic army that serves the national interests.

Ayatollah Khamenei rejected the domineering powers' claims that their armies were established just to protect their national interests, saying that those armies were actually serving the powers' political transgression rather than national interests. "Does the US army seek to serve the American people's interests by massacring of Iraqi and Afghan people," the IR Leader enquired.

Touching on the significant position of the IRI Army, Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to the current developments in the Middle East and said the army was a key element of the ongoing Islamic Awakening movement.

"A political current has been developing in the world that challenges a classification of the world countries into a dichotomy of domineering versus domineered; the Islamic Iran centers the political current," Ayatollah Khamenei said, adding that the superpowers' intimidations and threats of sanctions against the Islamic Iran stem from the very political reality.

"Having imbued the mind and body of Muslim nations for the past three decades, the vital movement has emerged as an accumulated force, leading to recent developments in Egypt and some other countries," the IR Leader said.

Ayatollah Khamenei said the colonial powers are afraid about the Islamic Iran's faithful and firm youths as well as the people's political foresight and high national sentiments that have boosted the political current.

"The IRI Army is a key and vital part of the process and must always maintain and boost its genuine preparedness," the Islamic Revolution Leader urged.