Millions Condemn Zionist Plots on Quds Day

Date: 10 July 2015 - 21:50

News ID: ۱۵۹۳۹

TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Several millions of Iranians took part in anti-Israel and anti-U.S. rallies across Iran on Friday, chanting "Down with America” and "Death to Israel” on Al-Quds Day, internationally observed annually on the last Friday of the month of Ramadan.
The holiday was proclaimed in 1979 by the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini as a religious duty for all Muslims to rally in solidarity against the occupying regime of Israel and for the "liberation” of Jerusalem Al-Quds. Tehran says the occasion is meant to express support for Palestinians and emphasize the importance of Al-Quds for Muslims.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani attended the protest on Friday but did not speak at the main rally in Tehran. Large demonstrations were also held in Iraq and Lebanon.
Protesters in Tehran burned Zionist and American flags. Posters showed Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi King Salman and U.S. President Barack Obama in flames.
Using the Al-Quds Day hashtag, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei tweeted: "There are two sides in oppression: oppressor & the oppressed. We back the oppressed and are against oppressors.”
At a mock checkpoint, several men and a woman dressed in Israeli army uniforms shouted at people who wanted to pass and pushed them back, threatening them with batons and guns.
"We are all here to see the freedom of Quds. The people of Palestine are oppressed and their lands occupied,” said Ahmad Moghadam, a 67-year-old clerk.
"We stand behind Palestine until its people are freed.”
Iranian military commanders also attended, with General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior adviser to Ayatollah Khamenei, saying the Al-Quds march was different this year because of a worsening regional security situation.
Iran has backed Iraqi forces against ISIL and Syrian government forces against terrorists including Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front.
"Terrorist groups such as Daesh and Al-Nusra, with the support of the Zionists and Saudi’s cruel war against the oppressed people of Yemen… have created a new situation in the region and the world,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Safavi as saying.
Fereshteh Ashuri, 23, a law student, said: "We still recognize Israel as the enemy of Islam. I tell Israel to stop daydreaming and rest assured that you will collapse.”
The annual event drew massive crowds, despite the scorching temperatures in Tehran, which were set to climb to 97 degrees Fahrenheit. Rallies were held in cities throughout the country.
Saudi Arabia was also publicly condemned at the mass rallies over its air campaign against Yemen since March, with the main slogan of the event denouncing the killing of children in "Gaza and Yemen”.
The crowd in Tehran chanted "Down with U.S., Israel and the House of Saud,” and carried placards that declared "Zionist soldiers kill Muslims” and "the Saudi family will fall”.
Demonstrators also set fire to a large effigy representing ISIL, labeled "Saudi’s doll”. It was later burned along with American, Israeli and British flags.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said the West’s ultimate objective is to obliterate Islam, adding it has started its plan with Palestine.
"Their major plan is to totally destroy Islam and they have started it with Palestine,” Larijani said in an address to worshipers at Tehran Friday Prayers who had attended International Quds Day rallies earlier in the day.
The senior Iranian official added that that the Western countries created the occupying regime of Israel in Palestinian lands with the aim of breaking up and sharing Islamic countries among themselves.
Larijani added that differences among certain Arab countries have helped Israel survive. The Iranian Majlis speaker said the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran changed the strategy of Muslims in standing up to the Zionist regime.