TEHRAN -- Islamic Jihad head Ziad al-Nakhala says Imam Khomeini’s movement gave meaning to the lives of Muslims worldwide and that only the Islamic Republic founded in Iran stands firm in supporting the Palestinian cause.
Imam Khomeini, “with his rise and presence, gave meaning to the lives of Muslims everywhere in the world … he gave them hope that change is not only possible but also inevitable,” Nakhala, the secretary general of the Gaza-based resistance movement, said on Friday.
Imam Khomeini’s movement, he said, changed global equations and empowered people to confront the forces of evil around the world, particularly in Palestine, where people fight off the Israeli occupation and oppression on a daily basis.
“Only the Islamic Republic stands firm in defending and supporting the Palestinian people and their resistance while calling for the liberation of Al-Quds and Palestine,” the Palestinian leader added.
In 1979, Imam Khomeini spearheaded a revolution that overthrow the US-backed monarchy in Iran and established the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The movement of Imam Khomeini, who passed away on June 3, 1989, inspired people of all walks of life around the world to rise up against oppressors in their countries and fight colonial powers.
“He freed Muslims and the weak from the terror of the great powers,” Nakhala said. “The Imam proved with his revolution that the major colonial powers can be broken, that they can be forced to retreat, and that they can be defeated.”
Imam Khomeini has become “a great symbol for all the men who make history, and his revolution will continue to bear more profound dimensions, the more we study it, and the more we delve into it”, he added.
The Islamic Revolution, according to Nakhala, is still flourishing around the world, from Iran to Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine.
“The Palestinian people today present the most prominent model in confronting the Zionist expansion, imposing a decline on them and preoccupying them in every point in Palestine,” he said.
“This would not have been possible without the valor and resistance of the Palestinian people and without the political and material support provided by the Islamic Republic, which did not stop for a single moment,” Nakhala added.
A senior official of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah also described Iran as the frontline defender of the Palestinian cause of liberation from the Israeli occupation and aggression.
“Tehran extends its helping hand to any upright person, who wants to protect his country or liberate it from the throes of occupation,” Sheikh Hassan al-Baghdadi, a member of Hezbollah’s central council, said.
He also recalled the Islamic Republic’s unflinching support for Lebanon during the war to liberate

the southern part of the country from the Zionist military occupation in the early 2000s.
The occupying regime waged two wars on Lebanon in 2000 and 2006. On both occasions, the occupying regime was forced to beat a humiliating retreat thanks to Hezbollah’s spirited resistance and heroic defense of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“In Lebanon, the Islamic Republic has had the upper hand by supporting us to liberate the south and protect it against invasion,” al-Baghdadi remarked.
He spoke at length about Imam Khomeini’s life and legacy, hailing the late founder of the Islamic Revolution for laying the foundation of a revolution independent of the east and west.
The Revolution has turned into “a model of reformation and defense of Muslims’ interests,” the Lebanese official stated.