"When the world criticizes Iran for making a bomb, doing so is a sign of Iran's progress. It shows how far Iran has come from the pre-revolutionary era to a post-revolutionary era. Prior to the revolution, 70 percent of the population was uneducated, in comparison to now when Iran is producing nuclear energy independent from reliance on foreign powers. Iran is one of the ten countries that have been able to produce nuclear energy. … All these accomplishments Iran has made have sprung from an infant regime in the aftermath of an eight-year war."
January 1, 1970
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ali_Khamenei