Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has released a Norooz message that focuses on economic challenges and calls for concentrated efforts to overcome them.
Iranian media aired Ayatollah Khamenei’s Norooz message today, March 20, the first day of the Iranian calendar year.
While referring to the past year as “an eventful year” for Iran, the region and the world, he maintained that the events had been generally beneficial for Iran.
He maintained that Western countries are “grappling with various problems”, and nations that have always been supported by the Islamic Republic have achieved “great goals.”
With implicit reference to events in Arab countries in the past year, the Iranian leader maintained that “dictators have been toppled; constitutions based on Islamic principles have been approved in various countries” and Israel has become increasingly “under siege.”
Ayatollah Khamenei claimed that Iran had achieved “great accomplishments” in the past year, adding that the current situation demands “the acceptance of challenges and problems and overcoming them.”
The Iranian leader had dubbed last year the “Year of Economic Jihad.” He claimed that “the wise and the informed knew that this title and direction for the past year was apt, but the effort of the enemies also proved that this was indeed very true.”
He went on to say that Iran’s major challenges in the coming year will be faced in the “economic arena.” For that reason, “domestic production” will be vital in meeting those challenges and overcoming the efforts of the country’s enemies.
He cited “national production, support of Iranian labour and capital” as the theme and slogan for the coming year.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad echoed Ayatollah Khamenei’s statements, saying: “Supporting national production, exports and Iranian labour and capital tops the administration’s agenda.”
