Praising the way the young Palestinians are awake and their moves in the occupied lands, Imam Khamenei stated, “These moves show that despite the efforts of the US and its cohorts, Palestine is alive, and by God’s favor, the final victory belongs to the people of Palestine.” Praising the courage of the oppressed people of Yemen, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution offered a word of advice to the Saudi officials. He addressed them saying, “Why do you continue a war which you know there’s no possibility of winning? Find a way to pull yourselves out of this war.” He described the recent ceasefire in Yemen as being something very good and added, “If this agreement is implemented in the true sense of the word, this can continue, and it’s the people of Yemen who will be the ones who are victorious thanks to the striving, courage, and initiatives of themselves and their leaders. And God will help these oppressed people as well.”

The Leader stated that all the problems of the country can definitely be solved. In explaining various aspects of the slogan of the year, he said, “The system of power in the Islamic Republic and its various achievements in different areas has turned Iran into an attractive role model for nations. Making the people lose hope and making them feel we have come to a dead-end situation is an act of oppression against the people and the Revolution.”

Referring to the good direction pursued by the diplomacy of the country, he said, “The officials should not wait at all for the nuclear issue to be resolved. Based on the realities of the country, they should plan and take action to solve the problems in the country.” Imam Khamenei described the officials in charge of the negotiations as being revolutionary, pious, diligent individuals. He explained, “The Minister of Foreign Affairs and the other officials involved in the negotiations deliver detailed reports to centers within the country. It is alright to criticize and evaluate their performance provided that such opinions are devoid of distrust and pessimism. As I have frequently said before, such opinions should not undermine the individuals involved or cause the people to lose hope.”

Expressing his satisfaction with the resistance of the negotiating team to the other sides’ aggression and avarice, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution stated, “The other side withdrew from the JCPOA and broke its commitments. Now they feel helpless and have reached a dead end. But the Islamic Republic will pass through this stage as it has passed through many stages before this by relying on its people.”

Elsewhere in his statements, he offered spiritual words of advice. He cited verses from the Qur’an and the supplications. He stated that asking God for forgiveness with a pure intention will bring sincerity, spiritual purity and divine mercy in one’s personal life and also in national and major social areas. He stressed that asking God for forgiveness because of our committing sins and because of failure to fulfill one’s duties is necessary. With regards to this, he said, “Many of us officials show negligence in carrying out our duties, and God will stringently question us in this regard.”

Expanding on the concept of duty and responsibility, Imam Khamenei stated, “In other political systems in the world, officials are questioned by their people. But in the Islamic Republic, in addition to the people, officials are subject to a more stringent and important form of questioning, which is God’s questioning.”

Expressing his satisfaction with the widespread presence of the youth in the managerial system of the country, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution called on all officials to beware of two important harms, namely arrogance and passivity. He explained, “Arrogance due to one’s position, achievements, God’s Grace or any other thing will be the beginning of one’s personal, social and professional decline. It will cause officials to drift away from the people as a result of one’s illusions.”

Pointing to passivity as being the second harm, His Eminence said, “Passivity means having a sense of being at a dead end. It is the opposite of arrogance, and it is very dangerous. The enemies are trying to inject this into society and officials. On the basis of God’s irreversible promise, the way to confront this plot of the enemy is patience and piety. Patience means not becoming tired and fleeing the arena, and piety means being vigilant of oneself and watching the enemy carefully.”

He stressed that piety has a vast scope and that it has a different meaning in different areas, such as the areas of economy, diplomacy and security. He added, “Today, making the people hopeless and injecting a sense of being in a dead-end situation is an act of oppression against the people, the country and the Revolution.”

Referring to some of the negative indexes regarding the economy of the country, Imam Khamenei said, “Problems and issues exist, but they are solvable. The criteria for judging the country and its achievements should not be confined to economic factors, and we should consider other factors as well.”

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution also stated, “Despite the negative indexes regarding the economy, there are signs of success in this area too. An example of this is the resilience of the country’s economy in the face of unprecedented sanctions.”

Achieving self-sufficiency in certain areas such as the production of six vaccines for preventing the Coronavirus, having almost no foreign debt along with scientific, industrial and technological accomplishments in various areas are achievements that Imam Khamenei referred to. Furthermore, he stated, “Another example of our achievements is the correct, smooth movement of the managerial system of the country. Unlike other countries and despite all enmities, power has been transferred in a legal way and without a need for any measures that are out of the ordinary.”

He added, “These achievements and other factors such as the expansion of Iran’s strategic depth and spiritual influence in the region have turned the Islamic Republic into an attractive role model.”

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution stressed, “Because of their greed, the enemy makes discouraging comments that were made in the past as well. The incorrectness of all those statements was proven later on. An example was Saddam’s pledge to take over Tehran in one week. Or there were the comments made by an American clown a few years ago stating that they would celebrate Christmas in Tehran.”

Imam Khamenei emphasized, “The fact that the arrogant Americans explicitly acknowledge that their maximum pressure policy suffered a humiliating defeat is a very important matter that should not be forgotten.”

Elsewhere in his statements, he touched on the slogan of the year and brought up some points regarding it. He referred to some people’s viewpoint that being knowledge-based and creating employment are incompatible with one another and explained, “It is true that with progress in technology, there will be less need for manpower. However, this does not hold true for our country which has many untapped, unexploited capacities in downstream areas. By making production knowledge-based in these areas, employment opportunities will increase by several times.”

He stated that the result of knowledge-based production will be an improvement in the quality of the workforce and the employment of the educated youth. In addition, he said, “Unfortunately, a high percentage of the graduates in the country are working in occupations not related to their field of study. But with the expansion of knowledge-based companies, the quality of the workforce will improve and the [educated] elite will no longer need to be employed in occupations of little value.”

Stressing that the expansion of knowledge-based companies must be done on the basis of priorities, needs and resolving the problems of the country, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution said, “Knowledge-based companies must be expanded in areas such as agriculture on which the economic security of the country is dependent and where there is a high capacity for attracting unemployed specialists and also in areas such as oil, gas and mines. Because in these areas, the valuable resources of the country are sold as raw materials.”

Imam Khamenei stressed that the preparation of the seventh plan of expansion is something necessary and added, “This plan was supposed to be prepared last year and implemented this year, but it did not happen. This year, the Administration and the Parliament must work hard to prepare and ratify the seventh plan on the basis of the general policies of the Islamic Republic.”

The Leader stated that being an official who is with the people and more importantly remaining that way is a necessary quality needed by every government official in the Islamic Republic, “Seeing and hearing realities in the field or receiving news of them from reliable sources prepares the ground for correct planning and taking the correct measures.”

He went on to say, “Sometimes, ordinary people raise points that are not even raised by experienced, reliable experts.”

Expressing his dissatisfaction at the failure to implement the general policies of Article 44 of the Constitution, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution stated, “By implementing these policies, the Administration will be able to entrust the economy of the country to the people. Then, the Administration will be able to attend to formulating policies, supervising and guiding so that the resolution of problems will increase in pace.”

Pointing to countries that have a good rate of economic growth without oil, Imam Khamenei stated, “It is 100 years now that oil has created a strong addiction like an addictive drug. This must certainly be remedied.”

Referring to the possibility that some currency and financial issues may be solved, he said, “If a problem is solved in this regard, we should take care not to allocate the revenues to unnecessary imports. Rather, they must be allocated to infrastructural issues such as roads and railway transport, knowledge-based companies, the innovation of industries, transit paths with neighboring countries and resolving the important problem of water. Fortunately, the Administration has begun good initiatives in the area of water, but solving this problem requires money.”

He described culture as being something very important and he stated that culture requires intelligent efforts. He emphasized this by saying, “Official cultural centers and cultural activities, which are thankfully busy working in large numbers, must take culture and science very seriously. They must work round-the-clock with open eyes.”

In his final words of advice to government officials, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution said, “The opportunity to carry out one’s duty is very fleeting, and you must appreciate the value of every hour.”

His second recommendation was for people to avoid doing work of an exhibitory nature. He added, “A conflict of interests, which everyone speaks negatively of, is not confined to the area of economics. If there is a conflict between the people’s attention to us and the public interests of the country, we must ignore our own interests and pay attention to public interests.”

In the beginning of this meeting, Hujjat al-Islam wal-Muslimeen Raisi, the President of Iran, described the words of the administration as being the words of the Islamic Revolution and highlighted it as being from the people, just and seeking transformation. He said, “The plan for transformation of the Administration has been prepared and published with the cooperation of a large number of experts.”