TEHRAN – On Wednesday, the Supreme Leader strongly denounced Saudi Arabia which with a support by some its allies included some anti-Hezbollah paragraphs in the OIC final communiqué.

“Let’s suppose a corrupt, sycophantic, hollow regime condemns Hezbollah in a statement with money and petrodollars; to hell with it! How much does it matter?” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a group of students, the Khamenei.ir reported.

The OIC summit was held in Istanbul on April 14 and 14. The OIC statement claimed that Hezbollah is conducting “terrorist activities” in Syria, Bahrain, Kuwait and Yemen.

Ayatollah Khamenei praised Hezbollah, likening it to a shinning sun.

"Hezbollah and its youths are shining like the sun and are a source of pride for the world of Islam,” the Leader noted.

“What [Hezbollah] did, three Arab armies could not do in two or three wars,” the Leader said in a reference to certain Arab countries which lost territory to Israel in the 1967 and 1973 wars with Israel. “Hezbollah defeated the Zionist regime, which had become stronger by then, in 33 days,” Ayatollah Khamenei remarked.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Leader said if Iran backs down in the face of U.S. pressure then Washington will become emboldened and asks the Islamic Republic to abandon research in other scientific fields.

“If we show any leniency toward them, they will begin playing games with biotech, nanotech and scientific issues and make problems,” the Leader remarked.

Despite a nuclear deal between Tehran and the West the United States has slapped new sanctions on Iran for its missile tests. The resolution 2231, which confirmed the nuclear deal between Iran and great powers, does not ban Iran to produce or test conventional weapons.

Under the nuclear agreement all economic and financial sanctions against Iran must be lifted, however some major banks and insurance companies are hesitant to do business with Iran, fearing a punishment by the United States.

“One of the most basic motivations which have prompted arrogant powers to square up against us is that a country, without relying on any power, has managed to reach the extraordinarily sensitive nuclear stage,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

The Leader also warned about America’s “soft war” against Iran, saying, “Right now with the issue of the youth, there is a comprehensive soft war between the Islamic Republic of Iran on one side and America and Zionists and their followers on the other side.”

Young students should consider themselves the officers of this war.

“Westerners, especially America, want the Iranian youth to be without faith, cowardly, unmotivated, inactive, hopeless, optimistic toward the enemy and pessimistic toward their own commanders.”

NA/PA