All countries must end trade, political ties with Israel to force it to end Gaza genocide: Iran president

Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi says all countries should end commercial and political cooperation with Israel in an attempt to compel the regime to end its atrocities in the Gaza Strip.

The Iranian president made the plea in a Monday letter to the heads of 50 countries, including Russia, China, Turkey, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Kenya and Jordan, following the continuation of Israel’s crimes against the oppressed and defenseless people of Gaza.

He called on all free and independent countries to use all the available means, including cutting off trade and political cooperation and communications with Israel, to exert pressure on the regime and play a more prominent role in ending the regime’s crimes against Palestinians.

Raeisi slammed Israel’s brutal acts in massacring thousands of people in Gaza and destroying the Strip’s infrastructure over the past 40 days.

He also censured some Western governments’ double standard policies and their deliberate violation of the principles of morality and human rights.

“It is expected that freedom-seeking and independent countries, especially Muslim states [adopt] a coherent and unified approach in the diplomatic and economic fields to put pressure on this occupying regime,” he said.

Such an approach would lay the groundwork for ending the Tel Aviv regime’s crimes in killing civilians and removing the siege of Gaza, the president emphasized.

Israel waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in retaliation for intensified Israeli crimes against Palestinians.

Israel has so far killed at least 13,000 Palestinians, including more than 5,500 children and 3,500 women, in its relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has urged the United Nations secretary general to form an international committee to visit hospitals in the besieged strip to counter Israel’s “false” claims that they are used as launch pad for anti-Israel operations. Hamas has noted that the claims are aimed to “justify” Israel’s attacks on hospitals in Gaza.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Sunday called on Muslim countries to sever political ties with the Israeli regime for “at least a limited period of time.”