TEHRAN — President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that the growing wisdom of the Iranian nation against the enemies is a result of their victory in the Sacred Defense as well as forty years of resistance against the enemies’ plots.

“In the Sacred Defense Week, we revere the high status of the martyrs and review the Iranian history’s glorious moments,” President Rouhani said in a statement marking the 40th anniversary of the beginning of Iraq’s war against Iran.

“The brilliance of this national epic will turn into a symbol of resistance and non-surrender for all freedom-seekers of the world,” he said, according to the president’s website.

The president said the Sacred Defense Week is a reminder of the Iranian nation’s freedom-seeking and sacrifice which made the country withstand years of aggression waged by the enemies of Islam and Iran.

He also commemorated Iran’s top anti-terror general, Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated in Iraq on January 3 by a U.S. airstrike which was directly ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump

“Martyr General Hajj Qassem Soleimani is among warriors whose courage and sacrifice in the fronts of right against wrong and his battle against the Takfiris and terrorists created brilliant victories,” Rouhani remarked.

Iran on Monday held a ceremony to honor more than one million war veterans during the eight years of the Sacred Defense. 

The ceremony kicked off at a Sacred Defense Museum in Tehran, marking the beginning of the Sacred Defense Week. It was attended by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution via videoconference.

It marked the 40th anniversary of the war that the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein launched against Iran on September 22, 1980. The war lasted for eight years.

MH/PA