TEHRAN – Supreme Leader of the Islamic revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday the Islamic world’s horizon is brighter than ever and the Islamic Ummah’s progress is an undeniable fact.

In a meeting with a group of Iranian officials and diplomats from Islamic countries held after the Eid ul-Fitr prayers, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “This is a fact (and) not extreme optimism. Muslims need a great jihad with political, scientific, social, and moral aspects to continue this progress.”
The Leader said the United States which considered itself an unchallenged power has now reached a deadlock in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
The U.S. officials now express skepticism over the success of their plans, he added.
“Over the past thirty years, the Muslim nation of Iran has stood up to the hegemonic powers and it is making progress day by day,” he stated.
Leader calls for unity among Iranians
Ayatollah Khamenei urged Iranians to maintain unity in the face of global threats against the Islamic nation.
“Unity does not mean having similar viewpoints and tastes. It means that all different tastes should work together and put ‘national interest’ before anything including the interests of their group,” the Leader said in a sermon at the Eid ul-Fitr prayers, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
“The enemies’ weakness has led them to conduct psychological, political and propaganda campaigns against the Islamic vigilance. They raise the issues of Arab and non-Arab, Shia and Sunni to create division and scare them from the Islamic Republic.
“But the Islamic system and the Iranian nation believe that all their achievements belong to the entire Islamic Ummah,” he stressed.
Ayatollah Khamenei said the Eid ul-Fitr prayers and the Qods demonstrations display unity among Iranians. Last Friday Muslims from the “East to the West of the Islamic world” shouted their support for the oppressed Palestinian nation, he observed.
The Leader asserted that Iran will stand by Palestinians in their resistance against the usurper Zionist regime.
He said Israel is weakening and is on the path to eventual destruction.
Israel “is weakening day by day ... Today, officials of the Zionist regime acknowledge that they are moving towards weakness, destruction and defeat.”
“Definitely, the world of Islam will see that day and hope the existing generation of the Palestinian people will watch the day Palestine is at the disposal of the Palestinian people, in the hands of the real owners,” he stated.
“Today, the Islamic world is paying more attention to the Palestine issue compared to 60 years ago when the catastrophe occurred,” the Supreme Leader said in reference to the occupation of Palestinian territories by the Zionist regime.
Ayatollah Khamenei called the Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, “mujahed brother”, saying “the Iranian nation will never let you be alone.