In a speech on June 9, the special military adviser and aide to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, described recent comments by Khamenei as "coded and having a hidden meaning."
Rahim Safavi was referring to Khamenei's remarks on May 23, when he urged the young Iranian generation to launch an upward movement for the progress of the nation, saying, "Prepare the grounds for the formation of a young and pious government."
Furthermore, Khamenei hailed Iranian youth as the leading players working toward a brighter future for the country, saying they can "make a huge difference in Iran's governing system" and foil the enemy's soft conspiracies.
In his Sunday evening speech addressed to the National Flag Bearers of Revolution gathering in the city of Qom, south of Tehran, Rahim Safavi, a former chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, blamed the people of Iran for the current economic and political crisis.
"What can we do? Our people are emotional,” he said. “They decide on one thing at night but vote for someone else in the morning.”
"If the people of Iran voted correctly in elections, many things would be corrected, as well," he added.
Describing the current situation in Iran as "a historical turn," Rahim Safavi noted, "If we (successfully) pass through it, we will emerge victoriously."
Meanwhile, the top military aide to the supreme leader highlighted the U.S. sanctions imposed on Tehran and said Washington's hostility is endless.
"At the current juncture, (the country's) economic issues have been entangled with cultural, security, and defense issues," he said.
Khamenei's military adviser also noted that the young Iranian generation has completely changed. "Forty-six million out of 80 million Iranians today are young,” he said. “None of these young ones has seen the imam (Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the so-called Islamic Republic) or experienced the revolution (that led to the downfall of the pro-West monarchy)."
Rahim Safavi accused Western countries of using satellites and social media to change the behavior and manner of Iranian youth.
"They have somewhat succeeded, but if Iran resists for a couple of more years, it will successfully pass the historical turn, emerging victorious," he said.
In recent years, Khamenei has focused on lifestyles in Iran and repeatedly described them as the central issue in what he calls the "Iran-U.S. battlefield."
Changing lifestyles is a plot devised by the enemy, Khamenei argued three years ago, in a meeting with the commanders of Basij militia, adding, "Through employing infiltrators, money, and sexual attractions, the enemy is trying to divide the Iranian nation. The enemy is plotting to force our society to copy the American style of life and thought."
Some analysts believe that Khamenei’s focus on youth could be a follow-up of the procedure that led to the election of the young mayor of Tehran, hard-line Mahmud Ahmadinejad, in 2005.
