TEHRAN, Oct. 19 (MNA) – Leader of the Islamic Revolution has called for government officials to discover and foster elites and geniuses as national assets.


Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei received and addressed 1000 innovative students and young talents of the technology and science sector on Wednesday, where his address touched the important issues of protecting the elites of the nation as heavenly blessings and assets. “The country will not abandon its young elites and talents to migrate to world leading universities overseas; rather, the Islamic Republic of Iran will save these geniuses to foster them and help them to contribute to great Islamic civilization Iran pioneers in the region,” he told the meeting.

“The elites themselves are to be held responsible for their possible neglect and lax handling of their own mental and innovative powers; they should channel the immense abilities to due grounds to translate potentials to concrete results for the nation and their country,” Ayatollah Khamenei added. “The authorities are equally to be questioned for these boons of the society, young geniuses and invaluable assets of the nation should be protected, fostered, and a sense of confidence should be implanted in them to improve national self-belief.”

Ayatollah Khamenei criticized the historically-rooted sense of self-denigration and disparagement during long Qajar and Pahlavi eras where the pessimism and underestimation of national capacities effectively closed paths to innovations and advancement, and huge power of the public was suppressed in favor of a West which dominated minds and hearts, despite the brilliant history and civilization and the great contributions the nation’s scientists had made in the past centuries to the general scientific progress. “Under such hopeless situation, the Islamic Revolution was a great force to fundamentally change the attitude and reinvigorated national pride and self-confidence and provided spirit for a public which now welcomed fight against independence; it inculcated in the public a feeling that this nation could do anything to run its affairs without relying on the foreign resources,” said the Leader.

Ayatollah Khamenei rejected the US- and EU-propagated view that Iran should join the global family of nations as clear examples of cultural degeneration and independence on foreign invading culture; “an aversion to jointing the international community so called by the West is by no means to reject communications with the world; rather, it is a well-organized and legitimate resistance against imposed paradigms in economics, politics, and security of the country by hegemonic powers,” the Leader emphasized.

“Current plights of the man and ideological deadlock requires new concepts and solutions; recent presidential election campaign in the US by both candidates highlights the collapse of ethics and morality among the power elites; in upcoming weeks, one of these two will become the president of a country which is wealthy and powerful with largest nuclear stockpile and biggest media corporations,” he told the meeting.

The technological advancement had however its own banes, as the Leader emphasized, “the systematic sabotage is still on the agenda of the enemy, which is a dreaded word for some circles inside the country; however, as the Holy Quran has in a famous verse, it instills a sense of alertness, just as the word ‘Satan’ does in more religious context,” said Ayatollah Khamenei, turning to the controversial issue of deviation from the most pressing issues which the country required the most, to cheap reproduction of university theses which would serve no good; in a second example, Leader said,  “ they invite an unqualified ‘pseudo-scientific’ figure who purportedly expose the photos of selling such thesis to demean Iranian elites; it is  ‘an aberration in the scientific roadmap’ of the country, and the authorities should discover true geniuses before foreign institutions claims them and to plunder country’s huge intellectual wealth during domestic conferences or by other means.”

Ayatollah Khamenei also voiced concerns over slowing of the pace of scientific and technological research projects as ‘disturbing;’ “in strategic aerospace, nuclear, and satellite technologies, research should continue with absolutely no lapse, since it would disillusion young elites and innovators, and would damage the country,” he said.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution underlined that support for tech companies, knowledge-based firms and incubators, improving quality fo such companies, and seeking theri participation in major naitonal projects sould be on agenda as necessities of the situation.

He also touched on an issue recurrent in his speeches, that is, deeply-rooted mistrust of the US and rejecting its policies altogether; "they [the US officials] have conditioned easing sancitons on Iran's change in regional policies and notably, tempering support for the resistance front; this is a theme I have regularly put forth in different addresses with government officials; if you retreat in nuclear issue, they are not devoid of pretext and soon they will bring Iran's missile program; even if you concede, they would continue with human rights issues, and then religious principles of the government."

By Mehr News Agency