War was imposed on Ayatollah Khamenei by the Zionists and Western imperialists, who wanted Iran to submit and kneel. Under his wise and visionary leadership, alongside brave commanders who were themselves martyred, Iran resisted.
In September 1980, one year after the Revolution, Saddam Hussein's army invaded Iran. Behind him stood the powers of East and West and the money of the Gulf monarchies. The goal was to strangle the Islamic Republic in its cradle.
Iran fought for eight years under arms embargo while its enemy was supplied with weapons, intelligence, and chemical agents. Cities were bombed and poison gas was used against soldiers and civilians, and the world said little.
The Wartime President
Through most of the war, Ayatollah Khamenei was the president of the republic under attack. He spent his presidency in work clothes, and he was known at the front.
A generation of commanders and hundreds of thousands of soldiers were martyred defending the country. Iran ended the war in 1988 without surrendering a province, a principle, or the Revolution itself.
The war taught the lesson that shaped everything he later built: no one would come to Iran's aid, so Iran would rely on Allah and on itself.
At the Front
He spent his presidency in work clothes, and he was known at the front.
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Years of Sacred Defense
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Saddam invades
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Khorramshahr liberated
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Ceasefire accepted
The Sacred Defense
Eight years, week by week, at the edge of survival.
Sept 22, 1980
The invasion
Saddam's army crossed the border along a 1,200-kilometer front, expecting to take Khuzestan in days. Behind him stood the intelligence, weapons, and money of East and West alike.
1980-1981
Holding the line
Cities held out under siege, and volunteers poured to the front. As president from October 1981, Ayatollah Khamenei carried the war government while the front consumed everything.
May 1982
Khorramshahr liberated
The occupied city was freed in the operation Beit al-Moqaddas. He called its liberation a divine victory, and the invader never advanced again.
1983-1988
The long grind
The war settled into years of offensives, tanker war, and missile attacks on cities. Chemical weapons, supplied with Western knowledge, were used against Iranian soldiers and civilians, and the world said little.
July 1988
The ceasefire
Iran accepted UN Resolution 598. Not one province was lost, not one principle surrendered. The Republic had survived its first great test.
The War in Pictures
The president at the front.
The frontThe wartime presidentAddressing the nationIn uniformReviewing the ranks, 1987With the Peshmerga, 1980Meeting the freed prisoners of war, 1990
