Leader hails flood response, pledges full compensation

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has praised the nationwide display of solidarity with the victims of the recent floods that swept through large parts of Iran, assuring the nation that the flood damage will be entirely compensated once the rescue efforts are completed.

Ayatollah Khamenei was addressing a gathering of people, officials and foreign envoys on the occasion of Mab’ath, which marks the appointment of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad to his divine mission, in Tehran on Wednesday.

The Leader said while the initial rescue operations were over, much was left to be done for the people affected by floods and extreme  weather conditions.

“Throughout these calamities, the people’s efforts and the sense of affinity and mobilization were superb and the Iranian nation heroically intervened and assisted the authorities,” the Leader said. “It was thanks to this popular assistance and unity that the authorities managed to implement the preliminary measures.”

The leader noted, “I have stressed to the officials that the main step of reconstruction and compensation comes next and that these losses must be wholly compensated.”

At least 57 people have died and hundreds more injured in historic floods that affected large parts of Iran over the past days.

PressTV-Iran armed forces, rescue teams step up flood response

The Army and the IRGC have mobilized all their resources to speed up rescue and relief efforts in about half of the country affected by flash floods.

The Leader, as commander in chief, has ordered Armed Forces to join the national relief campaign. President Hassan Rouhani also called back his cabinet from New Year holidays to speed up the rescue operations.

Many people, in forms of voluntary groups as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), have been participating in the efforts to ensure a speedy recovery in areas that incurred the most damage.

Ayatollah Khamenei called on the people in flood-hit areas as well as the rest of the nation to keep working with officials because their assistance would greatly contribute to resolving the problems.

Islamic jihad versus tyrannical wars

Elsewhere, the Leader elaborated on the concept of war in Islam and said the holy religion condones war only when it is meant to deter tyrannical powers and their acts of aggression.

Islam’s objective is to prevent wars of aggression, Ayatollah Khamenei said.

“The Zionist regime’s aggression over the years is a prime example of tyrannical warmongering, while the resistance of Palestinian and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters as well as the Iranian nation’s 8-year defense [against Iraq-imposed war] are prime examples of jihad (struggle) on the path of God,” he explained.

The Leader described the Islamic Revolution as an extension of Mab'ath and said the aggressive powers’ hostility with Iran arises from the Islamic Republic’s opposition to tyranny.

“The tyrannical front is against the monotheist movement and America and its cronies like Saudi Arabia will not settle for anything less than abandoning monotheism,” Ayatollah Khamenei further noted.

Rouhani blasts US blockade on foreign flood aid, vows speedy reconstruction

Before the leader delivered his speech, President Hassan Rouhani took to the podium to hail the rescue and relief operations in flood-affected parts of the country.

He also denounced America’s blocking of the Iranian Red Crescent Society’s bank accounts to prevent foreign aid from reaching the flood victims.

“The enemies were shamed by blocking the Red Crescent’s bank accounts with the aim of blocking the donations Iranians abroad made for their compatriots,” said the Iranian head of state.

The president asserted that Iranian Armed Forces, government officials and the nation will overcome the current challenges just as they succeeded in resisting foreign pressure by following Prophet Muhammad’s teachings before this.

PressTV-‘US blocking humanitarian aid to flood-hit Iranians’

Iran says the US is blocking the dispatch of humanitarian aid to flood-hit people by freezing the accounts of the Iranian Red Crescent.

Rouhani said unlike the US, which is still struggling to recover from the devastating storms that ravaged several states recently, Iranian people and authorities will join hands to fully rebuild the flood-damaged areas.

He also called on the Islamic world to counter attempts by the US and Israel to annex Syria’s Golan Heights as well as Palestinian lands in the East Jerusalem al-Quds.

“Neither Quds will ever become the capital of the occupying regime, nor Golan will ever be separated from Syria,” he asserted. “And the enemies won’t ever be able to force Islamic nations to bow down to the occupying and aggressive Zionist regime.”

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