RFERL:
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has tried to defend Iran's military presence in regional countries such as Syria, Iraq and Yemen in a speech in Mashad on Wednesday March 21.
“Nosy foreign characters protest as to why Iranians intervene in Iraq and Syria,” Khamenei said, “What has it got to do with you?” he asked.
Khamenei once again repeated Tehran’s usual position saying, “governments have asked us to be there,” adding that Tehran’s intervention in the region has “rational motivations.”
The international community has repeatedly denounced Tehran’s regional ambitions and world leaders have criticized Khamenei for Iran’s military interference in other countries’ affairs as a threat to peace and stability of the region.
Khamenei also evaluated the Islamic Republic’s performance during the past four decades as “generally positive” as “many of the slogans of the 1979 revolution have been materialized.”
Khamenei also said “We have managed to shorten the socio-economic gap between classes. There is freedom of speech” in the country, and that “No one has been pressured in this country because of their beliefs. Anyone claiming such a thing would be lying.”
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