Iran Dismisses Zionist Election Results

Date: 18 March 2015 - 22:10

News ID: ۱۲۲۳۱

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iran dismissed Wednesday Benjamin Netanyahu's election victory, saying it would have no effect on Palestinians or the Islamic world as all political parties of the occupying regime of Israel are "the same to us".
"For us, none of the parties or political groups of the Zionist regime are any different," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham.
"They all have an aggressive nature and all are the same to us and partners in atrocities against Palestinians, in plotting against Muslim nations and neglecting their rights."
Netanyahu swept to a stunning triumph, securing a third straight term despite a tenure of deepening tensions with the Palestinians and shaky relations with U.S. President Barack Obama.
Earlier this month, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said the Zionist regime posed the "greatest danger" in the region, after Netanyahu made a speech to the U.S. Congress arguing against a nuclear deal with Tehran.
Palestinians and other Arabs also greeted Netanyahu’s win with a mixture of skepticism and derision,.
Many Arabs had hoped that Isaac Herzog, Netanyahu’s center-left challenger, would defeat the incumbent prime minister in the election.
Netanyahu’s recent declaration that he wouldn’t support an independent Palestinian state if he were elected to a third consecutive term has irked Arabs.
Sabri Saidam, an adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said Palestinians must now respond to Netanyahu’s rejection of statehood by presenting a more united front and pressing their case before the International Criminal Court.
The authority, which governs the West Bank, applied to join the ICC late last year, drawing condemnation from Netanyahu. The move would allow Palestinians to lodge war-crimes charges against the occupying regime of Israel over its building of settlements in the West Bank and its military operations in the Gaza Strip.
"Netanyahu’s statements regarding our future should only motivate us to continue our struggle” before the ICC and in other venues, Saidam said.
Saeb Erekat, a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s executive committee, urged the international community to stand behind Palestinian efforts to bring their struggle before the ICC "and through all other peaceful means”.
"The results of the Israeli elections show the success of a campaign platform based on settlements, racism, apartheid and the denial of the fundamental human rights of the Palestinian people,” he said in a statement.
Mustafa Barghouti, a prominent Palestinian politician, said Netanyahu’s re-election following his declaration on the Palestinian state amounted to the abandonment of any chance for peace.
"Israel has chosen apartheid rather than peace, thus bringing an end to the peace camp in Palestine,” he said.
Jordanian senator and former minister, Alaa Batayneh, said that Netanyahu’s victory was definitely detrimental to Palestinian statehood. "Mr. Netanyahu’s actions in the past few days confirmed what we have been saying for years: that we don’t have an Israeli party for peace,” he said.
Netanyahu’s polarizing stances "will escalate matters”, he said, adding that the Zionist PM’s recent speech to the U.S. Congress, in which he warned against international rapprochement with Iran over its nuclear program, showed  Netanyahu "is going it alone, against all logic and reason”.
Hamid Reza Taraghi, the head of international affairs for Iran’s conservative Islamic Coalition Party, said the victor in the Israeli elections was irrelevant to Iranians.
"Whether Netanyahu or another individual, he will enjoy the U.S. support and naturally on the nuclear issue the U.S. will consult with the leaders of this regime,” he said.
If anything, though, he said the election of Netanyahu favored Iran because the prime minister’s staunch right-wing positions would "quicken the process” of the Zionist regime’s collapse.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah, with which the occupying regime of Israel fought a war in 2006, has yet to give any official response. But two dailies close to the resistance movement decried Netanyahu’s victory.
Al-Akhbar ran a front-page headline that read "Israel Holds on to Extremism,” while Assafir titled its main election story, "The New Knesset: Racial Discrimination Triumphs.”
Many Palestinians and others in the Middle East expressed a measure of apathy, saying the election never had a chance to change the dynamic of the Israeli-Palestinian relationship, regardless of how it turned out.