The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran has made a number of statements over the years about Resolution 598: the United Nations Security Council’s call for an end to the bloody hostilities of the Iran-Iraq War.
But depending on the context, his remarks have been subject to very different interpretations.
At a time when those close to Ayatollah Khamenei expect him to come out swinging in confrontation with the United States, a reminder of the resolution – and of the need for peace – may have been the opposite of what they expected.
In a speech to mark the 40th anniversary of the start of the Iran-Iraq war, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran startled some by calling the UN Security Council’s Resolution 598 of January 20, 1987 – and the ceasefire it brought about – a “wise” move.
At the time, Iran’s first Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini had interpreted the adoption of the resolution as drinking a “poisoned chalice.”
But in his latest missive, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said: “If [this] was not wise, Imam Khomeini would not have done it.”
In an online address to mark the anniversary of the war, which he referred to as the “Sacred Defence,” he said: “Despite the whole-hearted support that many countries in the world offered to the Ba’athist regime of Iraq, Iran was able to be victorious in the war.”
Over the last 15 years, Khamenei’s associates and Revolutionary Guards commanders have repeatedly attacked former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the architects of the Islamic Republic, accusing him of imposing the peace resolution on Ruhollah Khomeini.
Khamenei, however, had remained silent during the years of the attacks on Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Now, five years after Hashemi Rafsanjani’s death, he has made similar remarks to him in defense of the resolution.
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