THE chairman of the Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces says the Israeli regime has undoubtedly suffered an ‘unprecedented and irreparable’ defeat in its war against the oppressed people of Palestine.
‘The Zionists seek to make up for their defeat by killing defenceless (Palestinian) people,’ Major General Mohammad Baqeri said on Monday.
Israel’s onslaught on Gaza is a ‘big incident’ that marks a new history for the region and even the entire world, he continued, emphasising that no power can change the ‘quite clear’ fate of the war.
In this genocidal war, Baqeri said, the oppressed Palestinian people and their supporters, including Yemen, the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement, and Iraqi resistance groups are fighting against the shameless and criminal Israeli regime, as well as the United States and Europe.
And it has exposed Israel, the US and Europe’s empty rhetoric about advocating human rights and democracy.
In solidarity with the Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip where nearly 29,000 have been killed, regional resistance groups have targeted the interests of the Tel Aviv regime and its supporters, especially the US and the UK.
The top Iranian commander added that some countries in the Muslim world claim to support the Palestinian people ‘but in practice and contrary to the will of their people, they support the Zionists.’
Some of these countries allow Israel-bound ships to dock and load goods at their ports, while several others provide Israel with oil and oil transition pipelines.
Baqeri warned that those countries would face a far worse fate than the Zionists, emphasising that the people of Palestine and the Muslim world are well aware of the realities on the ground.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said the United Nations must take action to prevent further mass atrocities by the Israeli regime in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
In a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Amir-Abdollahian warned against the ‘devastating’ outcomes of Israel’s plan to carry out a fully-fledged ground invasion of Rafah.
He said an all-out offensive on Rafah would be devastating for the 1.5 million Palestinian people, most of them displaced, who have already been squeezed into the city and are on the very edge of survival.
He urged the international community not to let such carnage happen and cautioned that any military offensive on Rafah would undoubtedly be another phase in the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people.
‘It is imperative that the United Nations system fulfil its responsibilities at this critical juncture and avert further mass atrocities against the Palestinians who have taken refuge in Rafah,’ the top Iranian diplomat emphasized.
He highlighted the need for the UN and the international community to act unitedly in urging for an instant and permanent cessation of atrocities against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
They must also put an immediate end to the forced displacement of the Palestinian people and call for their unhindered access to humanitarian aid.
The top Iranian diplomat added that all countries are ‘legally and morally duty-bound’ to stop and prevent Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people.
Amir-Abdollahian emphasised that the UN must urge all its member states to stop collaborating with the Israeli occupying aggressor regime.
Any country’s cooperation with Israel would constitute complicity in the perpetration of ‘the most serious crimes of international concern and would entail their international responsibility.’
He lamented that a high number of innocent people have been killed and wounded during the past four months of Israel’s incessant attacks on Gaza.
This is visible evidence of a ‘premeditated plot’ to exterminate a whole nation, including through its forced expulsion out of occupied Palestine, he said.
He also noted that close to 30,000 Palestinians, most of them young children and women, have been brutally killed and more than 60,000 wounded in Israel’s ongoing war that started last October, while 7,000 others remain buried under the collapsed buildings.
The Israeli genocidal vengeance has not spared anyone living in occupied Palestine as over 85 journalists and more than 135 UNRWA aid workers are also brutally targeted.
Iran’s foreign minister also said the United States needs to put an end to its Gaza war hypocrisy and stop its empty rhetoric about the establishment of a ceasefire in the Strip while at the same time provoking the Israeli regime to attack the city of Rafah.
‘The Americans must stop being hypocritical and talking about a ceasefire while encouraging the Zionist regime to attack Rafah,’ Amir-Abdollahian said during a cabinet session on Sunday.
He also said Israel continues its war crimes against the people of Palestine in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and has caused a critical situation in northern and southern Gaza, particularly in Rafah.
Amir-Abdollahian also told the Iranian cabinet that the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has presented a comprehensive plan on behalf of the Gazans to stop the Israeli genocide in the Strip and lift its siege, secure a prisoner swap deal, and reconstruct the war-ravaged territory.
‘However, the resistance leaders have warned that any military action against the residents of Rafah will have severe reciprocal consequences,’ he emphasised.
He also argued that the Israeli regime has failed to achieve its desired goals in Gaza, and ‘this is the reason it still continues to beat the drum of war and threat.’
Amir-Abdollahian reiterated that Iran strongly supports any solution to the ongoing crisis that would improve regional security and safeguard the Palestinian people’s rights.
- A senior Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement official has warned that any attack by the Israeli regime on Lebanon will lead to a defeat bigger than it has already suffered in Palestine.
Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, a member of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, said on Monday that Israel’s plans to launch an attack on Lebanon to make up for its defeats in Gaza would further complicate the regime’s troubles and would accelerate the collapse of the Israeli cabinet led by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
‘If the aim of expanding the Israeli aggression to Lebanon is to escape defeat, it will lead to a deeper and bigger defeat, and if the aim is to prolong the political life of Netanyahu, I should say that any war with Lebanon would have only one result – and that would be an acceleration in their defeat and the fall of Netanyahu.’
The comments come as Hezbollah continues to hit targets in the Israeli-occupied areas in the north of Palestine in a bid to force the regime to end its aggression on Gaza, which has killed over 29,000 people since it started in early October.
Hezbollah’s attacks have prompted massive evacuation of Israeli settlers from areas near the Lebanese border while they have also caused significant casualties and inflicted losses on the Israeli military.
Attacks by Hezbollah are part of a larger campaign by resistance groups in Arab countries to target Israeli and US interests in the region to force the regime to end the war on Gaza.
