Iran Offers Initiatives to Counter Israel

Addressing an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul on Friday, President Rouhani lashed out at the Zionist regime of Israel for challenging the global community before the tearful eyes of the world by trampling on human dignity and belittling all values, his official website reported.

“If the Zionist regime is surrounded by developed and democratic countries and faces a united Ummah (Islamic community), it will never be able to continue its crimes in such relief,” the president deplored.

Rouhani further thanked his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for holding the OIC summit after Israel’s recent massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, saying, “Holding of extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation immediately after the extraordinary meeting of the Palestine Committee of the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States (PUIC) in Tehran on May 14th this year contains the important message that the Islamic Ummah (community), like a single hand, is standing strongly against the greatest threat to the world of Islam, which is the occupation of the Palestinian land by the Zionists.”

“I sincerely hope that this meeting, with cooperation and capability of Islamic countries, will lead to the adoption of practical solutions to end this dangerous crisis and to immediately assist the oppressed Palestinian people, especially the oppressed residents of Gaza,” Rouhani added.

“Today, we are mourning the last act of the 70-year-old genocide against the innocent in Palestine. The criminal Zionists have challenged the global community before the tearful eyes of the world by trampling on human dignity and belittling all values. While hundreds of thousands of innocent people are deprived of the most basic human rights, the Zionist regime is falsely introducing its own apartheid and ethnocentric system as democracy, and is calling its systematic religious extremism ‘secularism’,” the president deplored, adding, “What is more unfortunate is that some Western countries are justifying the invasion of occupiers.”

“In these conditions, the government of the United States moved its embassy to al-Quds. This arbitrary action which is contrary to international regulations gave the Zionist regime the go-ahead to commit another brutal killings. The White House has shown that it does not hesitate to destroy foundations and rules of international order, and goes to war against the right with forced,” he noted.

“Just days before the US embassy was transferred to al-Quds, president of the United States delivered another blow to international security and credibility of the international community and withdrew from a multilateral nuclear agreement that had been approved by the UN Security Council,” President Rouhani added, saying such measures show what a serious threat the US administration poses to the international law, peace and security.

The Iranian president finally proposed six initiatives that the Muslim world could use to prevent Israel from continuing its crimes.

The United Nations should be urged to convene an extraordinary meeting of the General Assembly to address the US government’s recent illegal decision and the Zionist regime of Israel’s recent crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, he noted.

Secondly, an “expert group” -comprised of legal, political and economic experts from the member states- should be formed to discuss and come up with plans to counter the US government’s recent illegal move at the national, regional and international levels, the president added.

The third move, Rouhani added, could be adoption of political, economic and trade measures against the US and Israel. “We call on the world’s freedom-seeking nations… to review their political, economic and trade ties with the US government, cut ties with the usurping Zionist regime, and boycott the Zionist goods and companies.”

The president then urged “solutions for collective action to provide humanitarian help for people of Palestine” as well as efforts to denuclearize the Middle East region, saying Israel’s nuclear stockpiles pose a serious threat to the international peace and security.

As regards the sixth and last initiative, President Rouhani said all Islamic countries should mark the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan as the international Quds Day for supporting the people of Palestine.

The OIC meeting in Istanbul came a few days after the Israeli regime killed at least 60 Palestinians in Gaza.

They were among Palestinians taking part in protests against the relocation of the US Israel embassy to the city of al-Quds (Jerusalem).

More than 2,700 Palestinians were also wounded in the Israeli crackdown on the protesters.