Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks in a meeting with a group of commanders and personnel of the Iranian Air Force and Army’s Air Defense Force in Tehran on Monday.
The meeting was held on the anniversary of a historic development that came days before the 1979 victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution that overthrew the former US-backed Pahlavi regime.
The event saw Homafaran, Pahlavi’s air force officers, breaking away from the monarchical regime and pledging allegiance to the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini.
The Leader warned of the enemy’s “specific plot” against the Iranian elites inside and outside the country, saying the enemy primarily seeks to prevent the elites’ growing role in the country and raise doubts among them.
He urged the Iranian elites to thwart the enemy’s plots aimed at raising doubts in the country.
The Leader asserted that national power boosts national security, saying that the enemy’s plots will be neutralized when it witnesses the Iranian people’s presence and preparedness as well as the Islamic establishment’s power.
Ayatollah Khamenei added that the elites can play a major role in high-turnout parliamentary elections on March 1, whose outcomes, he contended, would boost national might.
The Leader further stated the elites’ negligence toward their duties would lead to a devastating blow to the Iranian nation.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Leader noted that before the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the air force’s military equipment and heads were under US control.
However, after the 1979 victory of the Islamic Revolution, the air force’s pious elements managed to change its US-controlled nature into an Iranian force, Ayatollah Khamenei stressed.
He added that although the force’s weapons and equipment were US-made in the immediate aftermath of the revolution, Iranian commanders and staff were the ones making decisions about the country.
