GAZA CITY (Dispatches) --
Palestinian resistance groups on Monday praised the Iranian delegation for walking out of a speech by a representative of the Zionist regime to the 143rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Madrid.
“Hamas highly appreciates the brave decision of the Iranian parliamentary delegation at the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s meeting to leave the session as soon as Member of the Knesset Avi Dichter took the podium on Sunday to deliver a speech,” senior official Ismail Radwan said in a statement.
“The position attests to the praiseworthy policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which offers unwavering support for the Palestinian cause, the rights of Palestinian people as well as their resistance campaign, and rejects all forms of normalization with the Zionist regime.”
The Islamic Jihad movement described the Iranian move as a practical support for the Palestinian cause on the occasion of International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
The 143rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union opened in Madrid on Monday and will close on November 30.
Last month, an Israeli diplomatic delegation participating in a European conference of parliament speakers in Greece was forced to change its location at the event, after Algerian envoys strongly protested to the organizers against the order and refused to sit behind representatives of the Tel Aviv regime.
According to a report published by the independent Algerian daily newspaper Ennahar at the time, the Israeli delegate was initially supposed to sit in front of the Algerians, but had no option but to change its seats in the face of the latter’s vehement opposition and threats to withdraw from the event.
Parliament speakers from the 47-member Council of Europe, as well as many neighboring and observer countries plus other partner parliamentary assemblies, met on October 21 and 22 in Athens during a conference organized by the Hellenic Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).