President Hassan Rouhani and his cabinet members visited Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini’s mausoleum in southern Tehran on Monday to pay homage to the founder of the Islamic Republic and his legacy in the run-up to the 42nd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.
Rouhani delivered an address during the visit, recalling how the late leader led the 1979 Islamic Revolution to victory.
He said Ayatollah Khomeini depended solely on the power of the people, knowing that “soft power” would eventually triumph over “hard power”, Press TV reported.
This, the president added, made Iran’s Islamic Revolution distinct from those that depended on military or paramilitary strength.
Rouhani recalled how Ayatollah Khomeini’s return to Iran to a massive welcome marked the most momentous development that preceded the victory of the Islamic Revolution, calling the occasion the day when the late leader projected the revolution’s social assets to the world.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei also visited the mausoleum on Sunday, paying tribute to Ayatollah Khomeini by reciting verses of the Holy Qur’an and praying for his soul.
Iran began holding cerebrations on Sunday morning, commemorating the moment Ayatollah Khomeini disembarked from an Air France jumbo jet on Feb. 1, 1979 to a great welcome back home.
Ayatollah Khomeini flew back to Iran after spending almost 15 years in an exile that had been imposed on him by the former Western-backed Pahlavi regime.
But the exile in Turkey, Iraq and France did not dampen the revolutionary zeal that he had kindled in the hearts of Iranians.
That zeal generated a swell of public agitation which became too strong to be put down, forcing former shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to flee and draw the curtain on a 2,500-old monarchy in Iran.
The annual celebrations culminate on February 10, marking the resounding triumph of the Islamic Revolution which freed Iran from domestic despotism and foreign hegemony.
