I seek refuge in God from the accursed Satan
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
US's support for the government to hold the regime
Now that America has realized the Shah's putridity- and as the saying goes it has become so strong that even the Khan himself has realized it- it has adopted another course of action. Until recently, America supported the Shah and announced its backing for him. Now, however, the Americans proclaim their backing for this government, «1» and it is through backing this government that they hope to keep the regime. They think they can bring back this old servant to calm the people, take the Shah out of the country and then, after a while, bring him back a more powerful and savage ruler than before.
Illegitimate government
So, one of their strategies is to back this government. As I have said before, and will according to the referendum which was held, «2» this government is illegal; consequently repeat again, this government has been appointed by the Shah, who he is not the Shah; rather he is a usurper and a rebel. Thus, any governing body appointed by him is illegal.
This government has come to power with the backing of the members of parliament also; however, they too are illegal because they were not chosen by the people. Indeed, the people do not know any of them and have not appointed them to be their representatives. Thus, a government selected by these members of parliament cannot be a legal one.
So this plan of theirs, whereby they want to give this government the air of legitimacy, will not pass muster with the Iranian nation. The nation of Iran must demonstrate against it. It is incumbent on the people to rise up in opposition to this government, just as they did against previous ones, to demonstrate against it and bring it down. Indeed, it is already in a state of collapse, this government is not one that can calm the people. These people have stood up to martial law and military rule, they will not sit quietly before this kind of government waiting for it to make its next move.
The promises that this government has given are no different from those of the previous governments. The former government, I mean the last but one, gave many promises. It promised peace and then tried to implement it through tanks and machine-guns! This government has promised to bring to justice those guilty of misappropriation. If this is the case, then we must ask him (Bakhtiyar): What about the Shah? This wealth that the Shah now possesses, this wealth that he has transferred abroad, did he come by it legally or through illegal means? If you think that he obtained it legally, then you yourself are the worst criminal of them all- indeed, you didn't object to any of this yesterday, all this talk started today. On the other hand, if you see him as having obtained it illegally, then you are in fact recognizing his guilt and admitting that the Shah is a criminal, that he is someone who has misappropriated the wealth of the nation, has stolen from the nation, plundered and betrayed it. Consequently, as stipulated in the law, if the Shah is a traitor, he cannot be the Shah.
Thus, you (Bakhtiyar) are acknowledging that you were appointed by a Shah who is a traitor to the country and has plundered its wealth! Seeing as you are promising to arraign those who have acted treacherously, then arrest the Shah. It is within your power to do this, do not let him flee, put him on trial, take the wealth of the people away from him. Not one of these thieves, whose names were recorded in that document, details of which were divulged by the bank, has stolen as much as he has! You promise to catch these traitors; well he is the leader of them all.
The whole nation knows you (addressing Bakhtiyar and the government) are in the wrong if you do not agree that he is a traitor. And if you do recognize him as a traitor, then you yourselves know, as well as the whole nation, that you have been appointed by a traitor and those appointed by a traitor must either step down- indeed the people will eventually bring them down if they themselves do not come to their senses quickly and step down- or be seen to be traitors.
American plot
This, therefore, was all part of a plan, to bring a government to power and have it promise the people that it would bring these people to justice! That it would give back control of the religious endowments to the `ulama'! What need do the `ulama' have for religious endowments that you are trying to bribe them with?! Do they have any need for them? If the `ulama' gain control of the religious endowments, they will give them to those they have been bequeathed to, to those they are meant for. You are trying to deceive the `ulama' with such statements as:" We will put control of the religious endowments back into the hands of the `ulama'!" And" We will dismantle SAVAK and create an" intelligence office"! This simply means you will get rid of the name SAVAK and give it another name instead! Things will be just the same! I really do not believe that they are even going to imprison these thieves, these accomplices of the Shah they have arrested. According to them, these thieves are in confinement, but for all we know they may have been taken somewhere very pleasant. It is not improbable for the Shah to do such a thing. «3»
I cannot believe that they are truly going to convict these people. These are men who have been the Shah's accomplices for the past fifteen years, such as the former prime minister and the former head of SAVAK who were the Shah's friends as well as his accomplices. «4» This is just like the time he said he would carry out `reforms'! One cannot believe that these people really intend to take any steps. Even if they did, it would not be acceptable to us. Let us assume that the Shah or his government want to create a heaven of a country for us, we do not want the heaven that is created by the Shah's hand; we do not want the heaven that is created by the hands of the Shah's servants. Of course, such a thing will never happen, but were it to happen, we would not want it, because according to the law, according to the holy shari`ah, he is illegal and therefore has no dominion; the same applies to the government. Consequently, everything they do, whether they turn this country into a heaven or a hell, will not be accepted by the nation, as indeed it is not accepted by us either.
Army not to support the Shah
We have heard, from various quarters, that they wish to adopt another course of action- although this too I find hard to believe will come to pass- and that is they wish to carry out a military coup. «5» So far, a number of ways have been suggested by which this will be carried out. Some say that a number of these bloodthirsty butchers have been given sensitive posts, «6» and as soon as the Shah leaves the country, they will carry out a brutal coup d'etat and such and such will happen. I do not believe that this will be the case, for the Shah now lacks substance, he is too insubstantial for the army to support him. He is only in place now because these army commanders, who are his accomplices, deem that were he to go, it could possibly be bad for them. So they are clinging onto him with both hands, but it is as if they are holding onto a dead man in a coffin. The Shah is no longer of any account; he is unable to bring this about.
Supposed coup
And does the army want to do this without America's permission? For the top brass in the army are servants too. These few people who are guilty of stealing, of plundering the wealth of the people, and who now want to flee, cannot perform such a deed on their own. So it remains for America to give it them to perform, and in my opinion it is very doubtful that America will do such a thing, for its experts have already studied that possibility, even though their understanding was very little!
They (the Americans) have taken one step at a time and every time they have met with defeat. In the beginning, their tactics were to strengthen the Shah following this up by propagating him to be this, that and the other. Then they established martial law and saw that although it was implemented with the utmost severity, still the people paid no heed to it. It was announced; indeed this was the law, that if more than two people came out together onto the streets there would be dire consequences, as a result one million people poured into the streets! This is something that our nation should take note of: If one day they threaten to take action if the preachers speak out about a certain topic or against Israel, yet, in order to paralyze the regime and stop these kinds of threats, every preacher ascends the pulpit and speaks out on that subject all the same, they will not be able to do anything about it. They always take advantage of disunity. They frighten one group out of going to the pulpit and speaking out so that when another group, who are in the minority, ascend the pulpit, they will not say anything because they see that no one else is saying anything. If two or three do speak out they are quickly arrested. If they threaten you with all kinds of consequences if you close the universities, and still all the universities remain closed, they will not be able to do anything. Yes, if they can create disunity they will do so and will exploit it. They announced that martial law was in effect and that if two or more people came out together onto the streets they would do such and such and woe betide anyone who came out during curfew, nevertheless, our nation poured into the streets a million strong! And the regime couldn't do a damn thing about it. The people blocked the roads so they could remain on the streets during curfew hours. When the people are many, the regime cannot do anything. Supposing they were to do something, it would be nothing other than some minor ignominious act; they couldn't do something rational which would produce results. They did not achieve anything by the martial law which they imposed on twelve cities. «7» A revolution took place in each one of these cities and is continuing.
that martial law was having no effect and the people were still of the same mind, they established a military government. So martial law had to remain in place, but now the government too had to be run by the military. For a while, they were intent on crushing the people through the military government, however, once again the people resisted, they stood up to the military government, shouting the same slogans as they had done before; doing the same things as they had done before; sacrificing their lives as they had done before. A military government had no effect either.
People recognize the criminals
The people have been facing the military for a few months now. They faced out martial law, but at that time their ideas had not blossomed as they have now. At that time, SAVAK was something of consequence to them and the Shah was the Shah! But these notions are routed now, the nation has routed them, this nation has destroyed this idol. The Shah no longer enjoys any standing, neither he himself, those associated with him nor his army commanders have any standing now. If anyone enjoys standing in the eyes of the nation at present it is those army commanders whose hands are not imbrued with the blood of the people, and that means most of them. Those who thirsted for blood and whose hands were elbow deep in the blood of our nation are but a few, whom the people know about and whom they have made known to us! God willing, we will deal with them later.
The nation's army
It's not that our nation opposes the army; we view those in the army, the commanders, officers and those with rank, as our brothers; it is the murderous elements in the army that we oppose. The country has to have security forces, and we welcome them with open arms, we embrace them as our brothers. The army should not suppose that if" His Imperial Majesty" goes, it too will go or Iran will cease to exist. No, this will not be the case. As you see," His Imperial Majesty" now lacks substance, yet Iran is where it should be, as are you. These few thieves who are now giving you your orders will, in a few days' time, grab the money and flee, that is if the nation is so careless as to let them. Yet your position will remain the same; the nation wants you and you in turn want the nation. You are not the Shah's army; you are the nation's army. They are lying when they say you are the Shah's army! Who is the Shah to need an army? It is the nation that needs an army. The Shah himself must be from the nation, but he has acted foolishly and has separated himself from the nation. If this regime had aligned itself with the nation, there would have been none of this. I would not be here today and neither would you gentlemen. These people have driven a wedge between themselves and the people. They thought they could crush the nation until the end; they distanced themselves from the people and found themselves in the situation you see them in today. All the world powers rallied to his support, they stood by him, but because the nation did not want this regime, it has not survived. All the powers joined together, from the north to the south, the east to the west; they came together saying he must remain in power. But the nation said" no", and when these powers saw that the nation was adamant, they realized that they too had to say" no", and this they did.
So now they say" no" to the Shah remaining, but their second step is to say" yes" to this government! They say" yes", this government has to be, this government is a moderate one and whatever, but the nation says" no", and even if all the powers in the world support it, when the nation says" no", then it will not be.
It is said that the ministers are not allowed into the ministries, this nation itself, these governmental institutions themselves oppose the government, it is not only the merchants of the bazaar, the university people, the villagers and the farmers who are opposing it, the governmental offices too have had enough. The people there know better than most what corruption has gone on. It is said that they did not let the ministers into the ministry buildings; they apologized and told them that they did not accept them for they were not true ministers! Can a government whose ministers are not allowed into their ministries discharge its duties? This is just a farce. This parliament is not a true parliament. If these artificial representatives they have created and have sat down in the parliament were judicious, they would not sit there. At a time when the people will not let them into their ministries, these ministers take their posts saying:" I'm a minister! I want to carry out reforms"! What reforms do you want to carry out? They won't let you into your ministries, so where do you want to discharge your duties, where do you want to govern?! America has come to realize that this army is of no use, that it cannot control the nation for it does not oppose the nation. It is these few individuals whom this regime has installed to head the armed forces who oppose the nation, the rest of the honorable military personnel suffer greatly because of their actions. But they are unable to do anything.
Rumors about participation of Israeli forces in killing Iranian nation
I have been told that these massacres which have taken place were carried out by soldiers from Israel, but I do not have concrete proof of this. A few days ago someone- I can't remember his name- came here and told me that when he and a few others were traveling to Abadan, they stopped along the way to ask for directions and saw a soldier standing nearby. They called him over to them and realized that he didn't understand Persian, so one of the group spoke to him in Arabic and they learned that he was an Arab from Israel! The man himself admitted that he had been brought to Iran from Israel. A truck stood nearby full of his colleagues.
These people have used Israeli soldiers to kill the people of our nation, nevertheless, our nation resisted, it gave lives, it gave its youth and it stood up to them saying it did not want this regime. This is the" no" of the nation. Sometimes it is only a city, a district or a province which voices protest, and when this is the case, it is right for one to assume that such protests will be squashed. However, at times a whole country stands up, and this is what has happened today. Today, a whole country is saying" no" to the monarchical regime and" yes" to Islam. It is the whole country, and no power can quarrel with a whole country. Consequently, as you have witnessed, they have had to bring pawn after pawn into play in the hope of achieving something, but they have failed every time.
Identification of agents for a likely coup
The American experts saw that martial law only made matters worse and a military government even worse still. Now it is rumored that they are planning a military coup d'etat! Is a military coup any different from a military government? The meaning of a military coup is that once again a military man takes over the reins of power and once again the people are killed, only this time in slightly greater numbers. The people have already shown that they will resist such measures.
It is possible that a group of people have plans to carry out a coup d'etat, but I doubt that such a thing will come to pass. We know who they are; they have no place to hide. If they do such a thing they will not be able to flee from us. Wherever they go we will find them and take revenge. They must realize this, they must come to their senses and not dirty their hands with such a vile deed. Whatever vile deeds they may have perpetrated hitherto are done, they should refrain from perpetrating any more. They shouldn't suppose that we don't know who they are, we know them, and the nation too will soon know them. I doubt that America would be so foolish, that its experts would be so foolish, as to undertake such a useless task, to make one blunder after another in this way. This will not happen. This is just another stratagem that I don't believe they will execute. I do not believe they will carry out a coup d'etat.
Plot for attack on the army and killing the people
There is a third plan which is even more satanic than the others and which has a greater chance of being executed. It is said that in the event of the Shah leaving the country, America is planning to bring a group of its insurrectionists into play to attack the soldiers in the name of the nation, and lead them to believe that the people want to kill them. In this way, they want to make the army confront the people. This group is from the Americans, and they intend to come onto the streets, fool the people into following them then leave them to be gunned down and massacred. This is their ultimate plan. In this way they hope to bring about a massacre and make it appear that if the Shah leaves, the nation will destroy the army and massacre all the commanders! These are people, insurrectionists that the Americans themselves have supplied. They comprise commandos, kolis and mercenaries in their pay, and they are bent on inciting trouble. They will encourage some groups to attack the police headquarters, the barracks and the military headquarters and tell those who know no better:" When His Imperial Majesty goes, the nation will massacre you all!" As it is only natural for those being attacked, to defend themselves, their defensive actions will be made to appear just in the eyes of the world. It will be said they were only defending themselves against people who wanted to kill them. A great massacre will take place in the name of defending themselves against people intent on
murdering them. Therefore, I warn the nation, the soldiers, the commanders, young officers and others to get wise to this plot, for it will most probably be carried out, and they should be vigilant and not allow themselves to be tricked.
The commanders, officers and soldiers, the town and city police and the Gendarmerie should not entertain the idea that the nation is their enemy. The nation is at enmity with that wretch who will soon be leaving, God willing. The nation opposes neither the Gendarmerie nor the town and city police, it opposes neither of these, nor does it oppose the army or the members of the armed forces, they belong to the people and the people belong to them. Everybody should be aware of this plot hatched by fiends to try to turn two sections of the nation against one another and to incite fratricide. In the event of this plan being executed, they hope to trick the army commanders, the officers and the soldiers into thinking that it is the nation which has attacked them, whereas in actual fact those doing the attacking are their agents. If such a thing should come to pass, these commanders and officers should turn their guns on their superiors who are ordering them to kill the people. They should kill them instead. They must realize that the nation bears no animosity towards them. The nation is their friend, the people are their brothers. Their positions are secure, they will carry on with the same job as they are doing today, with the exception that the transgressions the American experts carried out against them, the burdens that they imposed upon them will be no more, and the army will be an independent one, an army of the nation, not an American army. It will be a national army belonging to the nation; the nation wants the army and the army wants the nation. So this is another course of action they may adopt to try to achieve what they want.
A non-violent military coup!
Another course of action also exists, and that is they may carry out a bloodless coup and then resort to hypocrisy in order to deceive the people and preserve America's control over us. If the Shah is still around, they may kill him to be rid of him, they may proclaim that they will give his wealth to the nation, the call to prayer may ring out from the minarets, and they may even establish prayer gatherings! This is one way by which they may try to fool the people, through hypocrisy, so that America continues to have control over us. And if the Shah is retained, they may bring him back after the flames have died down, or, alternatively, they may put another pawn in his place to continue his work, in other words to be America's servant. Then once again we will be back to the same old set-up, with them taking our oil, building bases for themselves and destroying the nation's resources.
Nation's readiness to neutralize plots
The people must be wary of these plots that are likely to come to pass, the people must ready themselves to deal with them and to neutralize these devilish actions, and they should not fear anything. The nation has reached the stage now where all the eyes of the world are on it; the Iranian nation has acquired a reputation in the world. I am aware, through the messages that have been sent to me, that from every corner of the world people are singing the praises of the Iranian nation. Wherever you look, from America to the Arab and other governments, they all view what has happened in Iran as nothing short of a miracle. I too view this as a divine affair; it is not man's doing. The hand of God is with you. Nation of Iran, do not fear anything!
Without the involvement of the hand of God, it would have been impossible for a human being to take children of such a young age and elderly men, eighty years of age, along the same path; the hand of man could not have achieved this. God is with you, so what do you fear? All the power in the world is nothing before God the Blessed and Exalted. Trust in God the Blessed and Exalted and persevere with your movement; fear nothing and continue your demonstrations and strikes. Victory is close at hand, God willing. Do not be afraid, be strong and patient. The Most Noble Messenger spent his whole life suffering, his whole life. You cannot find even one month in his life when he relaxed. All his suffering was for you. Today, the religion of the Prophet lies in your hands, they want to do away with it and it is up to us to preserve it. They are taking Islam's resources and it is up to us to safeguard them. Do not be afraid, be strong and patient. Learn from the example of the Messenger of Islam. He suffered hardships for thirteen years in Mecca, and the rest of his life was spent in battle, dispute and repulsing oppressors. We have only been doing this for a short while; what are we afraid of? If we are killed then, God willing, we will go to heaven, if we kill then still we will go to heaven. This is the logic of Islam, because Islam works for righteousness. We do not want to own the world; we want to establish righteousness and justice, not this" social justice" that Mr. Shah talks about, by which they take all the people's wealth and then say this is Islamic social justice!!
May God protect you all. May you be successful ["Amen" from the audience]. May God grant victory to the Iranian nation ["Amen" from the audience].