Need to Uproot Corruption, Improve Living Standards

Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has called on officials to step up their efforts to root out corruption and discrimination and work to improve people's standard of living. 

The Islamic Revolution is a "popular" one so people must be given priority on any agenda, the Leader said in a meeting with the commanders and personnel of Iran's Air Force and Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base in Tehran on Thursday, Press TV reported. 

He warned that enemies are resorting to any means at their disposal, including cyberspace and sanctions, to undermine the Iranian people's faith in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The enemy is bent on "preventing the revolution's continuation and perseverance; it uses any means at its disposal" to achieve that goal, the Leader said.  

Ayatollah Khamenei noted that apart from the cyberspace, the enemy uses sanctions to negatively affect Iranian people's lives, but they have so far failed to weaken the nation's faith in the revolution as people have remained vigilant in the face of such schemes. 

Despite all the enmities, the Islamic Revolution is "alive and growing," he added. "Given the nonsense statements by some US officials, the [Iranian] people feel that the enemy is waiting in ambush for aggression and hostility."

  IS Terror Group 

He said the Americans have created the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group, which is known as Daesh in Arabic. 

"In addition to creating Daesh, the Americans supported them and brutal US organizations like Blackwater were probably responsible for teaching them some violent and brutal measures, but despite all these brutalities and cruelties, the US government claims to be a defender of human rights and the oppressed and the rights of animals in its international propaganda," he noted.

  Palestine, Yemen 

In his speech, the Leader described the 70-year-long US oppression against the Palestinian nation and its support for the Saudi killing of the Yemenis as obvious examples of the US oppression. 

"Yemen's infrastructure and the oppressed people of the country are being bombarded every day by US allies with US weapons, but the US government does not protest or pay heed and instead shamelessly makes the baseless claim of Iran sending missiles by showcasing several metal parts," he said. 

"While the people of Yemen are under siege, how is it possible to send missiles?" he asked.

On November 4, 2017 a missile fired from Yemen targeted King Khalid International Airport near the Saudi capital, Riyadh. 

In December, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley presented a charred tube and other material that she claimed were from the Iranian-made ballistic missile. She claimed that the "evidence" proved Iran's violation of UN resolutions, which banned the transfer of weapons to Yemen's Houthi fighters. Both Iran and the Houthis have strongly denied the claim. 

Moreover, a panel appointed by the UN Security Council said it had seen no evidence to support the claims that missiles had been transferred to the Houthis by external sources.