TEHRAN (IFP) -- Muhammad Beheshti, a senior cultural analyst and Iranian official, says the art of Iranians is that they have always fought for peace throughout history while some countries have fought for domination.
Beheshti, the head of Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism (RICHT), underlined that in the eyes of Iranians, peace holds when everything is in the right place.
"In the Iranian culture, peace means everything should be in the place it belongs to, but in the Western culture, peace means everything should be in the place that they say,” said the official.
He described as "holy” any defense which is based on truth and peace.
The official said Iranians emerged victorious during the eight-year war imposed by Iraq on Iran in the 1980s because "we defended our homeland responsibly and honestly.”
He then said one of the topics the research institute has focused on is the issue of "holy defense.”
"The reason that the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism has turned to holy defense is that defense is one of the key manifestations of our culture, and holy defense has its roots in our history,” he added.
Beheshti made the comments at a scientific conference on intellectual, cultural and civilizational analyses of the history of defense in Iran.