Huge Rallies Mark Int’l Quds Day

Millions rallied across Iran on the International Quds Day to show solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine and condemn the Israeli regime’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
The demonstrations started at 10 a.m. in Tehran and over 900 cities across the country along routes identified by the Islamic Propagation Coordination Council who organized the event. 
People took to the streets on Quds Day for the first time in two years, after rallies were replaced by online events due to the coronavirus pandemic that had restricted mass gatherings.
President Ebrahim Raisi, who took part in the demonstrations, told reporters that the liberation of occupied Palestinian lands is certain based on a religious prophecy. 
“This movement that we are witnessing today is the symbol of the Muslim nation’s solidarity which will result in the downfall of the Zionist regime,” he said. 
A statement was issued at the end of the rallies, highlighting evil crimes against Palestinians by Israeli regime who has also been involved in criminal acts against the Iranian people and the assassination of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear scientists.
It stressed the need for beefing up the anti-Israel resistance front and called on regional and international organizations to adopt decisive and practical positions in this regard. 
“We emphasize that the Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces firmly, completely, and effectively support the anti-Israel resistance front,” it read. 
It also denounced concessions and normalization of diplomatic relations with Israel as an act of unforgivable treason and a plot aimed at weakening the anti-Israel resistance front. 
After Egypt and Jordan, which signed peace treaties with Israel in 1979 and 1994 respectively, four other countries from the Arab league, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Morocco, also established diplomatic relations with the Israeli regime in 2020. 
The statement decried the silence of the international community and human rights organizations vis-à-vis the racist practices and inhumane crimes of the Israeli regime.
Rallies were also held in other countries, including in Bahrain, where people staged demonstrations to protest against their government’s normalization of ties with Israel. 
Hundreds took to streets in Iraqi cities as well to reiterate their support for the Palestinian cause until the liberation of Beit-ul-Moqaddas.
Based on reports, the Syrian capital Damascus also saw demonstrations to mark the International Quds Day. 
The Quds Day, which is held on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan each year, was an initiative of the late founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to commemorate the Palestinian people’s resistance against Israel and their struggle to liberate their territories occupied by the Zionist regime for decades.
Iran has long proposed a solution for the Palestinian conflict, which has been officially at the United Nations, calling for a referendum among the true Palestinians, whether Muslim, Jewish or Christian, to determine their type of government.