Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks in a meeting with a group of officials from the provinces of North Khorasan and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad on September 26. Details of the address were published on Sunday.

The secret war, the Leader said, was meant to “turn people away from the arena of struggle and resistance, make them indifferent to [their] causes, and occupy the intellectual and spiritual climate of the country.”

The Leader added that the imperialists are trying to discourage the people by resorting to different tools including a costly propaganda campaign as well as political and economic pressures.

The Iranian nation has, however, “frustrated international powers in many of their goals through its resistance and steadfastness,” Ayatollah Khamenei added.

Tribute to martyrs

Ayatollah Khamenei also said it is a duty to preserve the memory of Iranian martyrs, emphasizing the need to shed more light on the momentous and yet-unexplained aspects of Iraq’s 1980-88 war against Iran.

“The youth of today should know those who saved the country from such plights and how they lived,” the Leader said.

Supported by regional and international powers, the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Iran via land and air in September 1980. The war that followed lasted for eight years and claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, Press TV reported.

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