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  • 5 weeks ago
In an exclusive interview with the *Tehran Times*, Austrian journalist Dieter Reinisch recounts his experience witnessing the funeral procession of the martyred Leader, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, sharing his firsthand observations and reflections on the event.
Transcript
00:00Hello, thank you very much. My name is Dieter Reynisch. I'm a journalist from Austria and I came here to
00:08honor and pay my respect to Ayatollah Sayyid Al-Khaviney, to participate in his funeral, but also to report from
00:19his funeral directly for non-Iranian Western European audience.
00:26What did you see on the streets, in the funeral?
00:30First of all, a lot of people. I've never seen so many people in my life and I've reported from
00:36many countries, many mass mobilizations, demonstrations and things like that.
00:41This amount of people, unbelievable how many people. But within this crowd, I was really struck about the emotions, how
00:56welcoming people were.
01:00When they saw me, when I went to Mo Salah, also, in particular when I went to Mo Salah, people
01:06were coming, they wanted to speak with me.
01:09I didn't need to look for interview partners. People came to me, they wanted to know where I'm from and
01:15everyone was happy and thankful, grateful that I was here.
01:22When I was here, there were people who were hugging me, kissing me and saying, thank you, thank you that
01:30you are here. It was very, very emotional.
01:34And apart from the morning, the deep morning for Said Ali Khamenei, I saw a proud, very, very proud and
01:47resilient people.
01:48And I want, I really want to stress that. On the one hand, the hospitality of the people on the
01:54streets and the resilience, the proudness, because the Iranian people went through so much.
02:05Not only last year, in the last 20 years, because of the sanctions regime. Then came the June war, the
02:15Ramadan war.
02:16And despite all that, and the lingering threat of another aggression, it can happen anytime.
02:24Trump and Netanyahu are completely unpredictable. And only a few days, only last week, there was another bombardment, attacks, bombardment
02:35in the south of Iran.
02:36But still, despite this hardship, people are so friendly, so welcoming, so open and so proud, so proud of their
02:45country.
02:45And people said to me, we came here, not only for our leader who has been assassinated, but for our
02:54country, to defend our country.
02:57And we are pledging revenge. They demanded revenge for the blood of the leader.
03:03And this is really an example. It leads the wave for all oppressed people and nations in the world.
03:16But there are so many other states that were apparently threatened by imperialism, most notably Cuba.
03:27And after the events in Venezuela, at the beginning of the year, everyone thought, like, Trump can do whatever he
03:32wants, no one can stop him.
03:33But this chain of imperialist aggression has been smashed by Iran.
03:44In future generations, historians will describe this as a turning point in history.
03:50Maybe some people don't see it now, because there are wars going on, proxy wars going on.
03:56But in the long term, this will lead to acceleration of the downfall of US imperialism.
04:07And I am an optimist. I always look positive for the future.
04:11And I am sure we will see the establishment of a more peaceful world.
04:16And at the moment, we are right in the middle of these historical events.
04:19And the funeral procession was part of this historical movement that we are witnessing.
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