IRAN’S President Ebrahim Raeisi says Operation Al-Aqsa Storm was a turning point in the history of the Palestinian cause.
The region and the wider world, the Iranian president stated, will not be the same after the glorious
operation.
Raeisi made the remarks in an address to the virtual Al-Quds Pulpit ceremony, which was held simultaneously in Tehran, Damascus, Sana’a, Beirut, and Baghdad on Wednesday ahead of the International Al-Quds Day.
Operation Al-Aqsa Storm was a reaction to years of Israeli devastation, oppression, and savagery amid the indifference and silence of human rights organisations, the president said.
‘Al-Aqsa Storm is a turning point in the history of the fight against the occupation, and the course of the Palestinian battle is divided into before and after the operation,’ he said.
‘The world and the region will not return to the conditions before this operation, and the insane perpetration of war crimes and the massacre of women and children by the Zionists will not cover up their irreparable defeats,’ the president said.
The Iranian president said the Zionist army has turned to war crimes and genocide against women and children to compensate for the strategic blow dealt by Operation Al-Aqsa Storm.
‘Thanks to the valour, faith, and courage of the Palestinians in Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, it has become clear to everyone today that the Zionist regime’s abode is more fragile than a spider web, and the world is witnessing the fulfilment of this divine promise.’
Raeisi said the Israeli regime faces a wide array of challenges in the political and military fields.
‘In the military field, the dominance of the Palestinian will over the multi-layered defence systems of the Zionists has further proven the illusion of the regime’s invincibility and revealed its high level of vulnerability to the world.’
‘This hollow regime is also, more than ever, on the verge of internal collapse in the political arena.’
Raeisi said the exemplary resilience of Gaza throughout the past months has rendered the Israeli regime unable to achieve any of its declared goals in Gaza.
He added: ‘If a nation relies on the power of faith, it will be able to overcome temporal powers and will undoubtedly taste the pleasure of victory. This is a divine promise, and divine traditions are infallible.’
The Iranian president said the Palestinian operation has sidelined the humiliating peace plans to settle the conflict, and showed that anybody counting on these plans is ‘playing a dead horse.’
He said the Palestinian fighters have proved that no plan for the future of Palestinian land can be implemented without the consent of the owners of the land.
Raeisi said Israel’s atrocities have also awakened the global public opinion, and even those allied with the Israeli regime, as evidenced by massive pro-Palestine protests in many countries.
‘The nations of the world, more than ever, have realised the importance of standing up to this ugly monster.’
The Iranian president censured the West for its ‘shameful silence’ on Israel’s atrocities.
‘Without any doubt, the US is a definite accomplice in the Israeli crimes in Gaza.’
The Iranian president also touched on the recent Israeli attack on the consular section of Iran’s embassy in Damascus.
Raeisi vowed that the ‘brave men of the resistance front’ will punish the regime.
‘The attack shows the peak of this regime’s frustration and helplessness and that, in a crazed effort to cover up its failures, it does not hesitate to commit any act in its crimes against humanity’.
On the International Quds Day, the Iranian president said the occasion has united the Muslim world behind the Palestinian cause and revitalised their support for Palestinians to push out the aggressors.
Raeisi said Iran will keep supporting the Palestinian cause.
‘The Islamic Republic of Iran, as it has previously stated, continues to be a supporter of resistance and emphasises the legitimacy of the Palestinian people in their struggle against the occupying enemy.’
- Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says Iran expects the European Union to take a ‘realistic and immediate’ move to condemn the recent Israeli terrorist attack on the country’s diplomatic premises in Syria.
In a telephone conversation on Wednesday, Amir-Abdollahian and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell discussed the Israeli terrorist attack on the consular section of Iran’s embassy in Damascus, which killed seven military members of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
He added that Israel attacked the diplomatic premises in violation of all international laws and principles as European officials have been urging Iran to exercise self-restraint.
Referring to the killing of six Syrian citizens, including a mother and her child, in addition to the Iranian military advisors in the attack, the top Iranian diplomat emphasised that Israel completely breached regional peace and security as well as security of diplomats and diplomatic missions.
Amir-Abdollahian wondered how the EU would react if a similar attack had hit a Western embassy in Ukraine.
On Monday, Israeli warplanes bombed the consular section of the Iranian Embassy in the Mezzeh neighbourhood in Damascus.
A senior commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, and his deputy General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi were among the seven Iranian martyrs of the terrorist attack.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that Israel will receive a slap in the face for its terrorist attack.
The Foreign Ministry has underscored the Islamic Republic’s legitimate right to a decisive response based on international law.
Amir-Abdollahian further said Israel’s genocide and war crimes continue in Gaza with the US support.
The United States will be the one responsible for the spillover of the tensions across the region if it refuses to show firm determination to stop supporting Israel’s war crimes,he emphasised.
The EU foreign policy chief, for his part, said the bloc believes that Israel’s attack on the Iranian diplomatic premises was in contravention of efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region.
Borrell noted that he would share Iran’s serious concerns with the EU members and called on Iran to keep exercising restraint.
Pointing to the developments in Gaza, he said EU’s efforts to stop the war in Gaza have unfortunately not been successful so far but the bloc would continue its measures to end the war.
The UN Security Council passed a resolution last week, calling for a ceasefire in the war that Israel began on October 7 after Gaza’s resistance groups carried out a retaliatory operation against the usurping entity.
‘The resolution must be implemented without delay,’ UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said.
Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 33,037 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and wounded 75,668.