A TOP Iranian official says Israel has been caught off guard and is encircled by the resistance front, adding that normalisation of ties between the Tel Aviv regime and some Arab states laid bare relations that had developed behind the scenes.
Kamal Kharrazi, the head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, made the remarks in a meeting with the visiting secretary general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, in Tehran on Tuesday.
Kharrazi, a senior advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, described Israel as an apartheid regime and said such illegal entities are doomed to fall apart.
‘The Zionist regime is an apartheid regime, and the fact that the United Nations has described the regime as apartheid is of paramount significance from an international perspective. According to natural law, apartheid regimes are doomed to failure,” the former Iranian foreign minister asserted.
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He went on to describe Iran’s support for Palestinian resistance groups as the main pillar of the Islamic Republic’s grand strategy.
‘Today, the Zionist regime is surrounded by the resistance front. If you put yourself in their shoes, it is easy to realise how concerned they are about their survival,’ Kharrazi said.
Pointing to longstanding secret ties between the Israeli regime and some Arab states, Kharrazi said what was being referred to as the normalisation of relations between some Arab countries and Israel is merely the exposé of [long-running] clandestine ties with the Zionist regime.
‘In the past, those countries did not openly support Palestine, but facilitated normalisation with Israel,’ the former top Iranian diplomat hastened to add.
He went on to say that US President Joe Biden did not achieve anything other than failure from his maiden visit to the Middle East, stressing that Israeli officials’ political exploitation of the visit clearly shows the internal problems facing the Tel Aviv regime.
Nakhalah, for his part, appreciated Iran’s unwavering support for the Palestinian cause and Palestinian resistance movements.
He expressed confidence that resistance fighters in the Middle East region will eventually emerge victorious against Israel.
On Tuesday evening, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in his meeting with Nakhalah reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to the Palestinian cause, saying Tehran will continue to support the oppressed Palestinian nation against the expansionist policies of the “apartheid” Zionist regime.
The top Iranian diplomat also called for unity and cohesion between Islamic countries in the face of the Israeli regime’s acts of aggression against Palestinians.
Last month, in a meeting with the representatives of Palestinian resistance groups in the Syrian capital, Amir-Abdollahian said Israel was grappling with the worst security and political conditions ever while slamming certain regional countries for normalisation of relations with Israel.
‘At the present time, Israel is going through its worse security and political conditions. However, there are those who think they can divert public opinion [from problems in their own countries] through normalisation of relations with Israel,’ Iran’s top diplomat said at the time.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has reaffirmed the Islamic Republic’s commitment to the Palestinian cause, saying Tehran will continue to support the oppressed Palestinian nation against the expansionist policies of the “apartheid” Zionist regime.
In a meeting with Secretary General of the Gaza-based Islamic Jihad movement Ziad al-Nakhala in Tehran on Tuesday evening, Amir-Abdollahian also called for unity and cohesion between Islamic countries in the face of the Israeli regime’s acts of aggression against Palestinians.
Referring to the failures of Israel and the US against the Palestinian resistance, the chief Iranian diplomat expressed hopes that the enemies would be further undermined through increased harmony and unity among Islamic countries.
For his part, Nakhala appreciated Iran’s support for the Palestinian people’s resistance and lauded the country’s constructive role in regional developments and its active diplomacy toward other countries.
Iran’s achievements, in fact, belong to the entire Muslim community, he said.
Nakhala also regretted certain efforts in the region to exert pressure on the Islamic Republic and downplay the real threat the Israeli regime poses to the Muslim community, Palestinians in particular.
Late in 2020, four Arab countries – the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco – inked normalisation deals with the Israeli regime. The deals, also called the Abraham Accords, were pushed by former US president Donald Trump.
Palestinians and their regional and international supporters have denounced the agreements as a “stab in the back” of the Palestinian cause of liberation from Israeli occupation and aggression.
At the same time, the United States and Israel have garnered support from certain regional states to counter what they call ‘Iran’s malign activities’ in the region.
The Islamic Jihad leader, however, said the endeavors and stances of the Islamic Republic in confronting the world’s hegemonic powers and supporting the oppressed nations against the occupiers and foreign powers herald blessings and strength for the resistant nation of Palestine and weakness for the enemies of the Muslim world.
He underlined the need for further unity between Palestinian groups, saying resistance is the only way to push out the occupiers from Palestine.
- Meanwhile Nancy Pelosi – the most senior US politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years – departed on Wednesday after a short meeting meeting with Kuomontang leaders in the capital Taipei.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said ‘those who play with fire will not come to a good end, and those who offend China will be punished’.
He added: ‘The United States is violating China’s sovereignty under the guise of so-called democracy,’ he added.
On the one hand, it abides by the ‘One China’ policy, which recognises only one Chinese government, giving it formal ties with Beijing and not Taiwan.
But on the other, it also maintains a ‘robust unofficial’ relationship with the island, which includes selling weapons for Taiwan to defend itself.
As speaker of the US House of Representatives, Ms Pelosi is second in line to the US presidency, behind Vice-President Kamala Harris.
In response to the trip, China announced what it called “necessary and just” military drills in seas around 10 miles (16 kilometres) from Taiwan.
The exercises – which will begin on Thursday and last for five days – will take place in some of the world’s busiest waterways and will include ‘long-range live ammunition shooting’
A US official told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday that Beijing may seek to use the visit to ramp up tensions. China’s defence ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang admitted that some of the exercises may breach Taiwan’s territorial waters.
President Tsai Ing-wen said Taiwan is facing ‘deliberately heightened military threats’, adding that it ‘would not back down and that Taiwan will do whatever it takes to strengthen its self-defence capabilities’.
Taiwan’s port authorities have asked ships to find alternative routes to avoid the drills, and Transport Minister Wang Kwo-tsai said Taipei was negotiating with neighbouring Japan and the Philippines to find alternative aviation routes.
It follows days of escalating tensions in which Chinese warplanes already ventured as far as the median line, the unofficial divide separating China and Taiwan in the waters between them.
You can see it in the excited way Nancy Pelosi’s arrival here is being reported on Taiwan’s many TV news channels.
The 82-year-old had earlier met Taiwan Deputy Speaker of Parliament Tsai Chi-Chang.
While the top Democrat’s visit has been welcomed in Taiwan, it has somewhat split opinion in the US.
The White House has been opposed the trip, and President Joe Biden had said the military assessed it as “not a good idea”.
And some commentators speculated that the visit could even push China to supply arms to Russia for use in Ukraine – something it has so far refused to do.
But she has received support from some perhaps unexpected quarters, with 26 Republican senators writing a letter in support of the visit.
The letter, whose signatories included Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, said that ‘for decades, members of the United States Congress, including previous Speakers of the House, have travelled to Taiwan’.
The trip, it added, was ‘consistent with the United States’ One China policy to which we are committed’.
