Tehran Denounces Washington’s Support for Israeli Land Theft

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that Washington was repudiating a 1978 State Department legal opinion that held Israeli settlements illegal, claiming that the establishment of those structures in the occupied West Bank “is not per se inconsistent with international law”.

Speaking on Thursday, Mousavi firmly rejected the announcement, saying it once again proved Washington’s “partnership” in the Israeli regime’s occupation of Palestine and its crimes in the territory as well as “a breach” of the sovereignty of Palestine’s neighbors.

The America officials’ statements and measures concerning Palestine constitute clear violations of international laws, he noted, urging the international community to take action in this regard.

Mousavi also stressed that the Palestinian land belongs to the Palestinian people.

“The Zionist regime is a usurping and occupying regime, and the only solution to the Palestine crisis is holding a referendum among the main inhabitants of the Palestinian land,” he added.

United Nations Security Council members decried the US policy shift on Israeli settlements during a meeting on Wednesday.

They emphasized that the settlements are illegal and undermine the so-called two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Before the meeting began, Britain, France, Germany, Belgium and Poland reiterated in a joint statement that “all settlement activity is illegal under international law.”

The Arab League will also hold an emergency meeting of foreign ministers on Monday to discuss Washington’s new policy on Israeli settlements which has drawn widespread condemnations.

Earlier this month, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani underlined that the Muslim world’s public opinion will not allow the US and Israel to divert attentions from the Palestinian issue.

President Rouhani made the remarks, addressing the opening ceremony of the 33rd International Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran on Thursday.

He described Palestine and Al-Quds as the most important issues in the World of Islam, warning of the United States and the Zionist Regime’s policies aimed at forgetting the issue as the World of Islam’s first priority.

“The public opinion in the World of Islam will not allow enemies to make the issue of Palestine and the Holy Quds be forgotten as the top priority of the World of Islam,” President Rouhani said.

He referred to the United States and the Zionist regime’s failures, and said, “Americans and Zionists will succeed in their conspiracies against the World of Islam if they are able to distance our young generation from the right ideals, and describe the enemy as friend and the friend as enemy”.

“For at least the last three decades, the US and the Zionist regime have been the source of every war, massacre and dispute in the region,” President Rouhani said, adding, “The young generation should understand that the US is not, and will never be, regional nations and Muslims’ friend, and regional issues must be resolved by its own people.”

“Although our enemies have attempted in the recent years to make us forget about Palestine and the Holy Quds, the public opinion in the World of Islam will not allow enemies to make the issue of Palestine and the Holy Quds be forgotten as the top priority of the World of Islam”.

“The most important plot against us Muslims in recent decades is to cast doubt on the powers that have long-standing animosity with the Muslim world,” he said.

“All these efforts have been for us to forget all the crimes committed by the West, led the United States, over the years, and the occupation of the Palestinian territory by a group of occupiers,” the president said.

“All these efforts are made to undermine the important fact that the Palestinians must return to their homeland. Enemies have achieved some success in this regard, but fortunately they have not achieved their malicious goals.”

“They wanted the Zionist Regime to be accepted as a normal state by all Muslims in the region and even the Palestinians. Even the new American regime tried to trade the issue of Palestine with money and called it the Deal of the Century, and even tried to make the Holy Quds the capital of the occupiers, but to no avail,” he said.

“From the killing of the Afghan people to the killing of the Iraqi people and the oppressed people of Yemen and sowing discord among the Islamic countries, these have all been the impacts of America’s evil plots in the region,” Rouhani said.

“Which country in the region has America served and helped over the past years? The source of which coup, war and conflict in the Middle East has not been America and the Zionist Regime?” he asked.

“The most important issue in the World of Islam is to dispel the doubt in the younger generation that America is not, and will not be, a friend of the nations and Muslims in the region. The ones that are using more clear language lately used to say that we have come to the region to save the Kuwaiti people, or we are here to secure the waterways, or they said we are sending our fighters and troops to fight terrorism, but they are now saying explicitly today that we are aiming at the Syrian oil wells. We had not heard a more explicit, clear statement than this by the regime in power in the White House,” President Rouhani warned.

“When they clearly said that they are starting a fire in the region to sell modern weapons, it became clear to us that they wanted the region’s money to pour into their pockets and sell their weapons to be used for the killing of the region’s people”.

He noted that the Yemenis want nothing except freedom and independence, saying, “What do you want in our region and why is your fleet in the region”?

Rouhani continued saying that others have always created problems for the regional states and have not solved any, adding, “They have only brought suffering, killing and bloodshed to our region. Palestine must be liberated by the heroic Muslims of this region and Palestine. No foreign power has contributed to the independence and freedom of any Islamic country.”

“Whenever regional nations have cooperated with each other, either to overthrow demons or gain independence and prosperity, major world powers and the United States have stood against the interests of the nations in favor of the aggressors,” he said.

The 33rd International Islamic Unity Conference, marking the birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), kicked off in Tehran on Thursday with President Rouhani in attendance.

Over 350 elites and figures from 93 countries are also participating in the international conference held in Tehran on November 14-16.

Secretary-General of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought Ayatollah Mohsen Araki and 250 Sunni clerics of Iran are present in the international conference.

The International Islamic Unity Conference this year is planned to mainly focus on unity of the Muslim Ummah to defend al-Aqsa Mosque.

Ayatollah Araki has already said that the International Conference will prove that the sanctions are ineffective and cannot isolate Islamic Republic of Iran.

On the sidelines of the four-day international Islamic conference, foreign guests will meet the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.

The International Islamic Unity Conference t is held annually in an effort to lay the ground for stronger unity and solidarity among Muslims and provide solutions to their problems.