Hawzah News Agency- Imam Khamenei planted a number of saplings on Monday morning to mark the National Tree Planting Day as per his annual tradition. During this event, the Leader, along with some points related to the environment, referred to the crime of poisoning of Iranian students and called it a great crime against the most innocent members of the society. He also called for severe punishment for the perpetrators.

At the end of his speech, Imam Khamenei also mentioned the issue of “poisoning of students” and emphasized that the officials and intelligence and law enforcement agencies need to follow the case seriously. “This is a big and unforgivable crime, and if anyone is involved in this incident, the agents and the masterminds must be severely punished,” he said.

Imam Khamenei further called the incident “a crime against the most innocent members of the society, meaning children, and a source of psychological insecurity in the society and concern for the affected families.”

“Everyone should know that if anyone is identified and convicted as the perpetrator of this crime, there will be no forgiveness for them, because they must be severely punished to become an example for others,” he added.

During the same event, the Leader referred to the slogan for this year's National Tree Planting Day, “Every Iranian Three Saplings”, as the reason for his planting three tree saplings. He explained that if, based on that slogan, every individual plants three saplings, the administration’s plan to plant one billion saplings will be realized in four years starting from 1402 (2023).

Imam Khamenei highlighted the importance of planting saplings for preservation of the environment, saying, “The experts’ advice is that in addition to planting fruit trees, forest trees and trees whose wood is important should also be planted as well, because wood trade has a significant impact on the country’s economy.”

“The current state of the country is the outcome of a single-product economy, which has problems in terms of the value of the national currency and inflation,” he argued.

Referring to the efforts of the officials to resolve the problems, Imam Khamenei said they need to “use all possible economic ways so that they can reach the right solution to remedy the people’s problems.”

He also said that declaration of the preservation of the environment is one of the outstanding features of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Constitution, stressing that “no one should violate this law.”