Zarif: US, Israel not to experience peace until Palestinian rights respected
Iranian Vice President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday that Israel and the United States should know that they will not experience peace and tranquility in the region as long as the rights of the Palestinian people are not respected and the Palestinian refugees do not return to their land.
Zarif was speaking at an international summit, titled ‘Nasrallah’s School of Thought’, which was held in commemoration of the 40th day of the assassination of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah by the Israeli regime in Lebanon in September.
He said that resistance against the Israeli regime began before the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and will continue until the full liberation of the Palestinian lands.
He asked whether the Israeli regime had been able to taste peace for a moment after the killing of tens of thousands of children, men and women in the Gaza Strip.
Zarif also underlined that the end of apartheid in South Africa can and should be repeated in the West Asia region.
Several international rights organizations have repeatedly accused Israel of pursuing policies of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians over the past decades, that amount to crimes against humanity.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also addressed the conference and warned that the drastic consequences of Israel’s brutal aggression on the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon would not be confined to West Asia and could spill over far beyond the strategic region.
“The usurping, apartheid and child-killing Zionist regime, rejecting all plans and proposals to establish a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon, presses ahead with its crimes in Palestine and Lebanon, and regrettably, the international community has been unable to stop the Zionist genocide or is only watching Zionist warmongering and their efforts to make the entire region unsafe,” Araghchi said.
“The world should know that if the war expands, its harmful effects will not be limited only to the West Asia region; insecurity and instability is something that can spread to other areas, even far away.”
Araghchi also praised Nasrallah as a symbol of resistance, courage and standing against oppression and aggression not only for Lebanon but also for the Muslim world and all freedom-seeking nations.
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf also said the assassination of Nasrallah has revealed the futility of compromise in the face of the regime.
Qalibaf highlighted Nasrallah’s unwavering support for the fighters of the Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas since the onset of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
The speaker said Hezbollah’s leader used his wisdom to build a power that served humanity.
More than 43,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israeli military action since the beginning of its devastating war on the Palestinian territory in last October.
The regime has also launched an aggression against Lebanon on the pretext of fighting Hezbollah and has killed more than 3,000 people there.