Iran’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Thursday to mark International Quds Day, the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan which was named by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Republic, more than four decades ago.
“Now, Palestine and holy Quds have turned into the symbol of unity in the Muslim world and represent the cause of the world’s right-seeking oppressed and freedom seekers from any race and religion,” it said.
The ministry criticized the so-called advocates of human rights who are indeed supporters of the occupying Israeli regime, such as the US and some European countries, for keeping a shameful silence on crimes and murders committed by Israel, which has killed about 100 Palestinians, including women and children, in the first three months of 2023 alone.
It stressed that the Islamic Republic’s “principled and unchangeable” policy of supporting the liberation struggle and legitimate resistance of the Palestinian nation and the necessity of effective and deterrent confrontation with the Israeli regime.
The ministry “asks all the Muslim governments and nations as well as world’s freedom seekers to become united to confront this cancerous tumor and disrupter of regional and international stability and security and to render real support and assistance to the oppressed people of Palestine".
It once again emphasized the legal obligation of international organizations and human rights entities to support the Palestinian people’s rights and terminate Israel’s savage crimes in Al-Quds and other occupied territories of Palestine and the regime’s aggressions and role-playing in the region.
The statement pointed to the move by the forces of the short-lived Zionist regime in recent days to violate the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the first qibla of Muslims across the globe, and kill worshipers in this sacred place, adding that such actions once again portrayed the “vicious face of this apartheid regime before the global public opinion".
It noted that the Israeli regime continues its crimes, blatantly violates the primary principles of human rights and desecrates religious and Muslim sanctities, particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque, urging Muslims “to get united and consolidated once again and support the heroic resistance of the Palestinian nation with the ultimate objective of liberating all the occupied territories of Palestine from the sea to the river and forming an integrated Palestinian establishment with holy Al-Quds as its capital".
As reiterated by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, the ministry said, the main policy of hegemonic powers and Zionism is to undermine the significance of the Palestinian issue in the minds of Muslims across the world so that it falls into oblivion.
Israeli troops stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on successive days last week, firing tear gas and stun grenades and preventing Palestinian worshippers from entering the mosque for dawn prayers. Israeli troops also beat worshipers with batons and riot guns, wounding many, before arresting hundreds. Several Muslim countries and organizations have strongly condemned the latest aggression, calling on international bodies to stop Israeli crimes and protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Iran describes Israel as the root cause of the region’s instability and insecurity, but also stresses Israel's US-supported barbarity will not change the inevitable fate of the Tel Aviv regime.
Tehran says the history of the apartheid regime is full of assassinations, massacre, torture and killing of Palestinian kids, and described Tel Aviv regime's atrocities and massacre of Palestinian women and children as indicative of the destitute of Zionists. Iranian officials say the Tel Aviv regime has been struggling for more than 70 years to exit its identity crisis which has been mixed with genocide, plunder, forced displacement and scores of other inhumane moves.