TEHRAN – Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Leader of the Islamic Revolution, said on Tuesday that if more people vote in the elections the next parliament will be “stronger”.

“The more people attend ballot boxes, Majlis will be stronger,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with a large number of people from East Azarbaijan province to mark the anniversary of Tabrizers’ uprising against the Pahlavi regime on February 18, 1978. 

“The enemy’s aim is separating the Iranian youth from the Islamic establishment; of course, similar to the Bahman 22 rallies (Feb. 11) and martyr General Qassem Soleimani’s funeral ceremonies, the enemy’s evil objectives in the election day (Feb. 21) won’t be materialized too,” the Leader added. 

“In my idea, after considering the entire aspects, today participation in the elections is a religious verdict and duty. It is not merely a national and revolutionary duty, but, it is a religious one. In the meantime it can be a national celebration. It is also a civil right.”“Election is a civil right, public Jihad, and divine test that if accompanied with massive participation of people it will bring glory and respect to the Islamic establishment and protect the country against plots,” Ayatollah Khamenei went on to say. 

“You are witnessing how the U.S. propaganda is trying to create a division between the Islamic establishment and the people. They are working and planning continuously. As they themselves claim they have created think tanks, but won’t attain any result,” the Leader underscored. 

Ayatollah Khamenei said that both the enemies and friends of Iran will monitor participation of the people in the elections.

He added that the enemies want to see the results of their pressure on Iran and the country’s friends are monitoring the process of elections worriedly.
 
“I always say in my messages to our friends that you should not be worried. The Iranian nation knows what to do,” the Leader stated. 

“The elections will thwart most of evil intentions of the U.S. and the Zionist regime against Iran,” Ayatollah Khamenei added. 

“I have always advised that Iran must become strong to foil the enemies’ plots,” the Leader remarked. 

Ayatollah Khamenei also said recently certain U.S. officials have made “nonsense” remarks about elections in Iran, noting, “A part of such remarks is aimed at affecting the elections to make our people feel hopeless.”

He added that another part of such remarks is intended to deflect attention from the Pentagon’s “evil act” in assassinating General Qassem Soleimani, which led to widespread condemnation inside and outside the U.S. 
 
Ayatollah Khamenei underscored, “In my idea, after considering the entire aspects, today participation in the elections is a religious verdict and duty. It is not merely a national and revolutionary duty, but, it is a religious one. In the meantime it can be a national celebration. It is also a civil right.”

The parliamentary elections, the 11th of its kind since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, will be held in over 200 constituencies across the country’s 31 provinces.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday that instead of accusing Iran of engineering outcome of elections, Washington must explain about its close ties with the countries that have not experienced even one single case of elections.

Abbas Mousavi was reacting to remarks by Brian Hook, the special representative for Iran and senior policy adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who on Friday had called the Iranian parliamentary elections a “pure theatre”. 

Mousavi said certain U.S. officials are used to talk irrelevantly about Iran. 

“The U.S. officials should, instead of putting Iran’s elections under question, respond to a large spectrum of people’s questions about complicated and unclear process of elections in the U.S., which ignore the vote of majority, or respond to questions about Washington’s close relations with certain countries that are strange to the simplest forms of elections,” Mousavi told reporters.

Leader predicts the U.S. will sink like Titanic

The Leader also pointed to the shocking statistics about instances of racism, class division and crimes in the United Stated, predicting that the U.S. will “sink” like the giant British passenger ship RMS Titanic, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912. 
  
 “Just as the splendor of the famous ship Titanic did not stop it from sinking, attempts to make up America’s appearance do not stop it from sinking either, and America will sink.”

MJ/PA