Speaking at a meeting held in Tehran on Saturday to make arrangements for this years’ International Quds Day, Sharif pointed to recent mass protests held by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip dubbed the “Great March of Return” and said, “This year, we have witnessed a massive uprising by Palestinians against the (Israeli) occupiers.”
“With the arrival of the third and fourth generations of Palestinians on the battlefield and with more than 50 martyrs and thousands wounded…, fresh blood has been pumped into the vessels of the anti-Zionist struggle, which will be fruitful with the help of God, the Almighty,” he added.
He further pointed to the US plan to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Quds and said, “The resolve of the Islamic Ummah (community) will make the implementation of the American-Zionist conspiracy to relocate the US embassy to Quds very costly.”
The International Quds Day is an annual event during which demonstrators express their solidarity with the Palestinian people and opposition to the occupation of the Palestinian territories by the Zionist regime of Israel.
According to US officials, the new US embassy in Quds would open on May 14 to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Nakba Day (Day of Catastrophe), which marks the anniversary of the forcible eviction of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland by Israelis in 1948.
The US president declared on December 6 that his administration would begin a years-long process of moving the American embassy in Tel Aviv to Quds.
The decision has drawn widespread international condemnation and has sparked protests in the Palestinian territories.