Interviewer: Foreign reporters
Question: [What do you think about this war and its future course?
Answer: In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. First of all, I must say that in accordance with Islamic precepts, we always oppose war, and desire that there be peace and harmony among all countries. But if we are forced into war, we, being warriors, will fight back with all our might, even if all the superpowers support him [Saddam] for we consider martyrdom a great honor. Our people accept martyrdom wholeheartedly. We are not afraid of war; we are fighters, but we do not want it to take place.
The criminal Iraqi government, which is a puppet, has attacked our cities and our civilians. Last night it attacked Dezfoul with missiles, killing many people. But we will attack their military positions. We will win for we have all our people on our side, whereas all the Iraqis are against Saddam. Even his army is tottering; they will lose the war. The Ba`athists will be deposed, and an Islamic government will replace them.
We will defend ourselves with all our might and free Iraq from the clutches of these criminals who are the superpowers' puppets. We are not afraid of the fact that our enemy is backed by the superpowers.
We hope that just as we overthrew the ex-Shah with our bare hands, and cut off the links of the superpowers to our country, we will also get rid of this person who is a greater criminal than the Shah was. We will liberate the brotherly people of Iraq so that they can determine their destiny, appoint their own government and govern themselves. We will win this war; there is no doubt about it. Supposing we get killed, our people will continue fighting and gladly meet martyrdom. I hope that we will always have God, the Blessed and Exalted, in mind and that He will be with us.
Report the truth to your countries. We are not asking you to take our side, but just give reports according to your observation of the situation in our country.