Ayatollah Khamenei urges Iran to prepare for ‘new world order’
Posted September 5, 2014
Al Monitor
After World War II,
Western countries took over the management of the world, especially in
countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, said Ayatollah Khamenei.
They did this by promoting a specific type of cultural values and using
military and political might. Khamenei said that both of these types of
power have been challenged and are now uncertain.
Ayatollah Khamenei said
that this “order was in the process of change,” and “When the world is
changing, when global order is changing and a new order is being formed,
naturally we have a more important duty.”
The first thing to be done is to understand the new world
order correctly, Khamenei said. “The power of the West on their two
foundations — values and thoughts and the political and military — have
become shaky. We have to understand this” rather than submitting to the
idea of Western superiority.
The second task is “to
prepare ourselves to play a role in this new order.” He said that Iran
needs to use all of its capabilities, both inside and outside the
country. Externally, he said, Iran has strategic depth and interests
via Islam, language and Shiism.
Ayatollah Khamenei added that Iran has influence in Asia and Latin
America, and that officials should focus on science, the economy and
culture.
In regard to culture, the supreme leader said that there are some in
the Islamic world and even in Iran who believe the West’s claims that
Western values are superior. He said that these values have caused the
foundation of family life to become unstable. He added that some in the
West feel that feminism is a “trap” for women. He criticized that the
issue of homosexuality had become a question of values in the West in
that if a politician opposed it, “It would be construed as a negative
point on his record.”
In the military realm, Khamenei said there are those who have
resisted the West’s superiority in political and military matters and
have felt pressure for their resistance. He added that since WWII, the
United States has preached democracy and human rights but has been
involved in the overthrowing of a number of governments.
He also blamed the West for the rise of fundamentalists like the
Islamic State and other fundamentalist groups. He recounted how during
the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, Lebanese Sunni cleric Sheikh Saeed
Shaaban had warned him about Western plans “to entangle Iran on the
eastern border.”
Khamenei said that he was “incredulous” because Afghanistan was on
Iran’s Eastern border, and this statement predated the Taliban and
al-Qaeda. He said after he was told this, the Taliban gained power and
even in Western media, the Taliban was discussed in a way that “promoted
them.”
