TEHRAN, June 4 (MNA) -- By following the true nature of the late Imam Khomeini’s line, that is, Islam, democracy, and Islam-based innovations, the Iranian nation will have a future far brighter than its past, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Monday in an address to a huge crowd gathered at the mausoleum of the Founder of the Islamic Republic to commemorate the 18th anniversary of the Imam's departure.

On the Islamic aspect of the revolution, the Leader said that while the Islamic Republic of Iran is the fruit of Shia teachings, the political system goes beyond any sectarian identity and that is why the Sunni Muslims of Palestine and the Shia Muslims of Lebanon have both pinned their hopes on the Islamic Republic of Iran.

On the democratic aspect of the revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei said the people's votes are the determining factor in the Islamic Republic of Iran, adding that Western democracy is not the people's choice, but rather the choice of those wielding the power.

The enemy is using media propaganda in an attempt to depict a false image of the Iranian nation and the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Leader said.

To cause discord among Muslims, the enemies are trying to spark a Shia-Sunni war, which is one of their major plots, he added. Ayatollah Khamenei stated that in order to resist the moves of the arrogant powers and attain one's rights, one has to pay a price, saying that the Imam paid the price through the support of the people, and “God returned him the price in double measure, so that the number of people who participated in his funeral was greater than the number of those who welcomed that great leader.”

A nation can only attain its rights through vigilance and conscious resistance, the Leader said, adding that the Iranian nation will never bow down to the world's hegemonistic powers in the dispute over its peaceful nuclear program.

He went on to say that the resistance of the Iranian nation is the source of the Islamic Republic’s strength and the realization of its independence and national dignity.

“Because of this resistance, the arrogant powers of the world have concluded that Iranians will never retreat from the field of danger when they must defend the truth and their rights," Ayatollah Khamenei observed. Relentless resistance prepares the ground for the nation to attain their rights in all fields, including nuclear energy, he noted, adding, "The free and independent nation of Iran shall not beg for their rights from the hegemonistic powers because their experiences over the past 28 years have taught them that they can attain their rights through wary resistance."

Ayatollah Khamenei said the emergence of ‘Islamic republic’ as a new identity in the strategically important Middle East region was one of the greatest accomplishments of Imam Khomeini.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has the most stable system in the region, and all the efforts of the enemies to defeat it have been futile, and the youth and the intellectuals of the Islamic world are getting more and more interested in Imam Khomeini and the Islamic Republic, he asserted. PA/HG END MNA