The Nations Are on Your Side

26/03/2008

When we went there, people gave us a warm welcome. That was because we were the representatives of this [revolutionary] center. The people who received us warmly were not just a handful of ill-informed people whom we had chosen beforehand in order to be able to claim that we were popular. The situation is still the same. If you arrived for the first time in one of those countries in which we do not have an embassy, you would realize that the happy news of your arrival has reached there before you. Of course, this will happen if you are lucky enough to find the opportunity to be in the company of the general public who are aware of the current issues, and if you find the opportunity to be in the company of students, intellectuals, committed individuals and devoted people. In the trips that I took to different places at various times, I saw this reality with my own eyes both in Islamic and non-Islamic countries - and even in communist countries. In my presidential term, I decided to take a trip to a few countries. Before that time, some incidents had taken place at international levels that brought us face to face with some issues, and the propaganda sponsored by the Zionists, the Americans and the global arrogance used to fan the flames of these issues. I went to Imam Khomeini to get some advice. He used to give me some advice before every trip. I told him: "The incidents happened to occur just before my trip, and the enemies and the governments are very sensitive about such issues." He said: "That is right, but the nations are on your side." It was on the same trip that I clearly observed the truth of Imam's remark. It was so clear that I would not have been similarly convinced with a hundred logical reasons.

* Related on April 23, 1991 in a meeting with the head of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the cultural representatives of the Islamic Republic in foreign countries

^{* Source: http://english.khamenei.ir}