Iranian Envoy: Talks with Israel Never Restores Rights of Palestinians

Tehran’s Ambassador to Damascus Mohammad Reza Rao’uf Sheibani underlined that revival of the so-called “peace talks” between Israel and Palestinian groups is doomed to failure, and said such negotiations will never restore the rights of the Palestinian nation.
“The peace talks of the occupying regime of the Holy Quds are doomed to failure because the Zionist regime is not prepared to accept the demands of the Palestinians,” Sheibani said.

He noted that it is not for the first time that these talks have been proposed and each time any attempt has taken place it has been in vain.

“The basis and foundations of the Zionist regime are built on occupation, aggression and attacking its neighboring countries and nations and for the same reason these talks are assessed to fail before even they are held,” the Iranian envoy added.

On Friday, Tehran’s provisional Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami deplored the US attempts to revive ‘peace talks’ between Israel and the Palestinians, and said Washington is using Muslims’ ignorance to continue its attempts for restoring such negotiations.

Addressing a large and fervent congregation of worshipers in Tehran on the last Friday of the holy fasting month of Ramadan which has been dubbed as the ‘International Quds Day’, Ayatollah Khatami said peace talks have not the least benefit for the oppressed Palestinians.

He said Muslims in the International Quds Day chant ‘Down with the US’ and ‘Down with Israel’, thus voicing their resentment of Zionists crimes and support for the oppressed.

Ayatollah Khatami said the tyrant US government uses the chance, gained out of Muslims ignorance, to proceed with peace talks and this is pursued in the US State Department.

The peace talks in more than 60 years of Palestine occupation have had not the least benefit for the oppressed Palestinians. Has there been any benefit, it has been thanks to resistance and Intifada.

Last month, US Secretary of State John Kerry claimed that he finally “convinced Israeli and Palestinian officials to return to the negotiating table.” This is while the prospects for peace appear just as unlikely as before.

Head of the Political Bureau of the Palestinian Hamas movement Khalid Mashaal had underlined in May that Washington’s efforts to restore peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians are doomed to failure since the US secretary of state has not presented any solution to the ongoing crisis.

He complained that John Kerry has not adopted a serious approach to settle the Palestinian issue fairly because it has never pressured Israel as the occupier, and has just pressured the Arab sides and the Palestinian authority and presented some useless projects.

The US secretary of state has claimed to be seeking to revive direct peace talks that broke down in 2010 over the issue of Jewish settlement building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

He hailed the Arab League’s revised Middle-East peace initiative as “a very big step forward”.

But Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh at the time rejected the plan, saying outsiders could not decide the fate of the Palestinians.

In the meetings held in early May in Washington, Arab states appeared to soften their 2002 peace plan, acknowledging that Israelis and Palestinians may have to swap land in any eventual peace deal.

Addressing hundreds of worshippers in a Gaza mosque, Haniyeh said it was a concession that other Arabs were not authorized to make.

“The so-called new Arab initiative is rejected by our people, by our nation and no one can accept it,” Haniyeh said.

“The initiative contains numerous dangers to our people in the occupied land of 1967, 1948 and to our people in exile.”

“To those who speak of land swaps we say that Palestine is not a property, it is not for sale, not for a swap and cannot be traded,” Haniyeh said.

Haniyeh said the Palestinian Authority, headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, was to blame for inspiring the softer Arab position because it accepted the need for land swaps with Israel.