Leader Imam Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei: Today, some regard us as the fourth superpower in the world. Of course, they say this according to worldly calculations. But according to divine calculations, a country that considers itself belonging to the Ahl al-Bayt—the Pure Household of the Prophet—and whose people are deeply devoted to those exalted figures, and who have no fear of upholding the truth, is regarded as the foremost power in the world. There was a time when the two southern seas of Iran [the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman] were the arena of enemy forces. But today, because of the painful blows they have received from the courageous warriors and defenders of the Strait of Hormuz, they do not advance beyond the Arabian Sea; and whenever they have taken that risk, they have inflicted damage upon themselves. It will not be long before the Arabian Sea, too, rids itself of them. There was a time when the courage of the people of this land was identified through its men. But today we are living in days when, in some arenas of courageous participation, women are surpassing men. I, as a servant of the dear people of Iran, declare that those former days to which our enemy wishes to return us have passed, and they will never be repeated. For the phoenix that rose from the ashes of the First Imposed War has now, as a result of the enemy’s pressure and especially the two most recent imposed wars, grown so large that the shadow of its flight has fallen even upon the lands of the enemy.