Hawzah News Agency - “It is an axiom that feeling weakness would encourage the enemy to launch an attack,” Ayatollah Khamenei said on Monday, in an address to a group of veterans and people

involved in arranging cultural excursions to the former war zones, held in Tehran.

“If you want to dissuade the enemy from onslaught, we should avoid expressing the feeling of weakness, and (should) exhibit the numerous strong points we have,” Imam Khamenei underscored.

The Leader then pointed to the Iraqi war against Iran in the 1980s, saying the reason behind the onset of the imposed war was the sense of weakness that the Baathist enemy and its supporters

perceived in the Iranian forces.

Warning against the same threat in the cultural and political fields as well, Ayatollah Khamenei noted, “In big economic challenge that the country is now facing with, the mistake that has been made

by some people was the expression of weakness in the economic field: And, accordingly, the enemy found that it can exert pressure in that area, and did mount pressure.”

Imam Khamenei further highlighted Iran’s “cultural assets and values” in countering the adversaries, saying the “faith in standing against the bullies” and the belief that “resistance will undoubtedly

defeat the enemy” are valuable assets, as they proved effectual in the Islamic Revolution or the Sacred Defense.

Imam Khamenei further warned against the moves aimed at consigning the Sacred Defense to oblivion, hailing the annual excursions to former war zones in Iran’s border areas as a “technology” to

exploit the “goldmine” of the Sacred Defense memories.

The annual excursions are part of a broad cultural program in Iran to familiarize people, particularly the young generation, with the Iranian soldiers’ bravery during eight years of imposed war under

former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1980s.

In Iran, the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war is known as the Sacred Defense, and Sacred Defense Week is held on the anniversary of the beginning of the war.