Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says defending the nation of Palestine is tantamount to defending the truth, not simply defending an oppressed nation that has been driven out of its home.

The Leader made the remarks in a meeting with university professors and scientific elites in Tehran on Wednesday on the verge of International Quds Day, which will be marked in Iran and other countries on Friday.

“The Quds Day is very important. It is not just that we are defending an oppressed nation that has been driven out of its home. We are actually fighting against an oppressive and arrogant political system,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

The Leader went on to note that today, defending Palestine is tantamount to defending the truth.

“Today, fighting against the Zionist regime [of Israel] is fighting against the [global] arrogance, [and] is fighting against the [entire] hegemonic system,” the Leader noted.

Referring to UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Agenda, also known as the 2030 Agenda, and efforts to implement it in Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei said various aspects of this document must be explained to the Iranian nation, because “this is a very important issue.”

Ayatollah Khamenei noted that the 2030 Agenda was among UN’s upstream documents, which are aimed to impose an intellectual, cultural and practical system on the world.

Noting that UNESCO is just a tool to promote such documents, the Leader said, “There are hands behind the scenes of the United Nations, which formulate an intellectual and cultural and practical system for everything that world nations have [and insist] that nations must act upon them.”

“This is wrong and faulty. What right do these [international bodies] have to express opinions about countries and their traditions and beliefs [and tell them] that they must act in this way or that way,” the Leader said.

Ayatollah Khamenei also noted that those who say such documents are not “binding” are simplistic, because every one of their provisions, which are not enforced, will be considered as a negative point for countries that have accepted them.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Leader touched upon the importance of the country’s independence, advising university professors to make the country’s youths appreciate its independence.

“They have not seen the time when whatever that America and Britain said was realized in this country. Therefore, they do not appreciate independence [of Iran], [and university] professors must make them understand this,” the Leader said.