TEHRAN -- Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has praised sacrifices made by fighters of the Resistance Front and those who embraced martyrdom in their relentless fight against takfiri terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria, known as Defenders of the Holy Shrine.
Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks in a meeting with organizing members of the International Meeting of the Holy Shrine Defenders and the Resistance Front Martyrs, held in Tehran on June 19, but they were published on Saturday.
The Leader commended the Holy Shrine Defenders as an extraordinary and important phenomenon and one of the manifestations of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s internationalism.
Ayatollah Khamenei said the presence of young people of different nationalities in the ranks of the Holy Shrine Defenders showed that the 1979 Islamic Revolution, after more than four decades, has the power to re-create the very same passion and epic of the time.
The Leader touched on the events following the Islamic Revolution. 
“As part of its plot, the enemy intended to destroy the Islamic establishment by invading the region and concurrently by imposing economic and political as well as ideological and religious pressures on Iran, but a group of young believers, revolving on the Islamic Republic, vanquished this project by the global arrogance,” he said.
“With such a view, it should be stated that the Defenders of the Holy Shrine saved Iran and the region.”
Ayatollah Khamenei also pointed to the “violent, merciless and inhumane nature” of Daesh and other terror outfits aligned with it, which were formed through the arms and propaganda support of the United States and the West.
“The goal of this organization was to make the region, especially Iran, insecure, but the Holy Shrine Defenders also neutralized this grave danger,” he noted.
The Leader said, “The Holy Shrine Defenders and their families are a source of honor and pride, and salvation and prosperity for Islamic Iran, and the Islamic Revolution is definitely indebted to such martyrs and their families.”
Since March 2011, Syria has been gripped by a campaign of militancy and destruction sponsored by the U.S. and its allies. In recent years, however, Syrian government forces have managed to win back control of almost all regions from terrorist groups.
The Daesh terrorist group began a campaign of terror in Iraq in 2014, taking control of vast swathes in lightning attacks across the region. Iraq declared victory over the terror outfit in December 2017 after a three-year counter-terrorism military campaign, in which Hashd al-Sha’abi, also known as Popular Mobilization Units, played a major role.
Daesh has already been driven out of all its urban bastions both in Iraq and Syria, but its remnants carry out sporadic terror attacks in both neighboring Arab countries.