Day: December 12, 2023

Even in the area of safeguarding our territorial integrity and independence of our governments, we witnessed and experienced shameful weakness over the 200-year period. It was during the same period that the two disgraceful treaties – the Treaty of Torkmenchay and the Treaty of Gulistan – were signed and 17 Caucasian cities broke away from Iran. It was during the same period that they came and occupied Bushehr without facing the slightest resistance from our government and government officials. It was during the same period that a foreign government established a military base in Qazvin and threatened our central government with military invasion. They ordered our government to do certain things and to remove certain people from official positions, and they threatened that they would attack Tehran if their orders were not carried out. That is to say, they came as close as Qazvin and threatened Tehran with military invasion, and the central government in Tehran was trembling with fear.

If it were not for a few competent people, our central government would have definitely complied with the orders of that foreign government. It was during the same period that the English government established the Pahlavi regime in Iran. They chose Reza Khan and crowned him. They legalized his rule and put him in charge of everything while they had full control over him. It was during the same period that the disgraceful Anglo-Persian Agreement of 1919 was signed, which would hand our national economy over to foreigners and would put the enemies of Iran in charge of our economy and politics. It was during this period that the Allied leaders of three countries came to Tehran and held a meeting without asking our central government for permission. They completely ignored our central government. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin traveled to Tehran and held a meeting. They did not ask anybody for permission and they did not show any passports. Mohammad Reza Shah, who was the king of Iran at that time, was completely ignored. They did not go to see him. He was the one who went to see them and when he entered the room, they did not stand up. They ignored him. Notice the consequences of a central government’s weakness, which affects the people. This is the worst kind of humiliation and weakness that a government and a nation can suffer. These things happened during the 200-year period.

Imam Khamenei, Jun 3, 2012