TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned Muslim countries against working with the occupying regime of Israel in a speech to the 33rd Islamic Unity Conference here on Thursday.
"It is a strategic mistake in the Islamic world when some see Israel as their friend. It is very unfortunate that some Islamic countries, that are supposed to be steadfast against their enemies for the benefit of the world of Islam and the benefit of their own people, have extended a hand in friendship to Israel,” Rouhani said.
"They are even using Israel’s intelligence capabilities against the Muslim people and the resistance movements,” he said.
The occupying regime of Israel has peace agreements only with Egypt and Jordan, but it has seen warming ties with Persian Gulf states in recent years, despite the absence of formal diplomatic relations.
Rouhani said the enemies are trying to consign the issue of Palestine and Jerusalem Al-Quds which is the main problem of the Muslim world to oblivion.
The enemies, he said, have also sought to make Muslims forget crimes committed by the West, foremost the United States, against the Islamic world.
"They wanted Israel to be accepted by all Muslim people in the region, even by the Palestinians, as a normal and typical entity,” he said.
"Today, no one in the region and the Islamic world has any doubt that ... the U.S. and the Zionist regime have been the root cause of all war, massacre, bloodshed and division in our region at least over the past three decades,” Rouhani said.
Rouhani cited the massacre of people in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen as well as disputes among Muslim countries as examples of "ominous” U.S. plots in the region.
He said that Iran is at the "forefront of the struggle against arrogance and the Zionist regime,” alongside Palestinians, Syrians and Iraqis.
"We must clear our minds of any doubt that America is our enemy,” Rouhani said, although he said this did not mean that Iran sought war with the U.S.
The president also proclaimed Iran’s friendship for Saudi Arabia, despite tensions between the states, and its bond with Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain and the Palestinian people.
"Today is not the time for Shia-phobia, Sunni-phobia, Iran-phobia, or any-country-phobia. Our phobia today should be about the arrogance and Zionism,” Rouhani said.