US promotes peace talks to deceive

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has deplored as “fake prestige” US-brokered plans for peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.

“The US raises the issue of peace talks to create a mirage for the Palestinian people and deceive regional nations,” said Larijani in a Sunday meeting in Tehran with Khalil Hamdan, a senior official of Lebanon’s Amal movement.

He added that the US seeks to promote peace talks to make “fake prestige” among regional nations and said resistance was the only way leading to victory and restoration of rights of the Palestinians, IRIB reported.

He pointed to deep-rooted relations between the Iranian and the Lebanese nations and expressed Iran’s support for the Lebanese people in their fight against Israel.

Larijani also voiced Iran’s deep concern about the abduction of Imam Moussa al-Sadr and said the Islamic Republic would pursue the case to find out about the cleric’s fate.

Imam Moussa al-Sadr was kidnapped during an official visit to Tripoli to meet with officials from the government of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in August 1978.

In 2008, the Beirut government issued an arrest warrant for Gaddafi over Sadr’s disappearance.