1st LD: Iran says to follow late leader's legacy to support "oppressed people" against U.S.

Iran will follow the legacy of the late founder of the Islamic republic to support the "oppressed people" who have withstood U.S. dominance in the world, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said here on Thursday.

"Imam Khomeini always sided with the oppressed people against the bullying powers," and the Islamic republic will pursue the path Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhollah Khomeini had pioneered for Iranians, Khamenei told Iranians who gathered in Khomeini's mausoleum in southern Tehran to commemorate the former supreme leader who died on June 3, 1989.

Khomeini's reference of the United States as the "Great Satan" is an "epistemological" heritage to Iran, Khamenei told tens of thousands of Iranians, along with high-ranking officials and foreign diplomats.

Khamenei also hailed Khomeini's stance on the seizure of the U.S. embassy, saying it was in line with Khomeini's outlook to the bullying world superpower. Waves of anti-U.S. slogans followed Khamenei's words. "No compromise; no surrender; fight with America," the crowd shouted.

In 1979, swarms of Iranian students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and captured some 60 U.S. diplomats, holding 52 of them in captivity for 444 days. Khomeini backed the students, calling the U.S. embassy as "den of espionage," and the United States, the "Great Satan."

Khomeini did not play the politics of balancing; he stood against the Soviet Union's aggression on Afghanistan while remaining firmly against the United States, Khamenei said.

Inheriting Imam Khomeini's views, Khamenei said, Iran opposes the brutality of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the siege of Gaza, the bombardment of Yemen, the oppression of Bahraini people and the U.S. drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He said the issue of Palestine is at the core of Iran's foreign policy.

"Everybody should know that the issue of Palestine will not be removed from the agenda of the Islamic republic," Khamenei said. "No incident can separate us from the Palestinians."

Citing Khomeini's opposition to restoring relations with the United States, Khamenei warned against coming to terms with Washington.

Khomeini was against politicians who wanted relations with the United States, as he knew if Iran became complacent with the overthrow of the Pahlavi regime, the United States would find another way to come back, Khamenei said.

Khomeini, a senior cleric and statesman, led the 1979 revolution that overthrew U.S.-backed Shah of the Pahlavi regime and established the Islamic Republic. Endit