TEHRAN - Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said here on Saturday that the Iranian nation proved during its eight-year Sacred Defense (1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war) that it never seeks aggression toward other countries.

“But when it comes to protecting national identity and sacred causes, the resistance of the Iranian nation can serve as a model for the world,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with a group of war veterans who had served on the front line for fifty to one hundred months and those who made sacrifices during the war. He called the Iran-Iraq war a defensive and unequal war, saying, “During the eight-year Sacred Defense, all the Western and Eastern powers lined up against Iran in the political, military, economic, and propaganda spheres.”

It was in fact a war of international powers against the Islamic Republic, he noted.

Iran’s victory at the end of the war is unquestionable because the Iraqi Baath regime, which had invaded Iran with full international support in order to topple the Islamic system, was driven out of the county and suffered heavy damage, gaining nothing, the Leader said.

He called on officials to redouble their efforts to keep the memories of the Sacred Defense alive through more artistic and professional measures like recording the words of those who have information about it.

In addition, some of the war veterans and those who made sacrifices during the war recounted their memories of the war at the meeting.