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Iran Friday Sermon For International Qods Day: Qods Remains Most Pivotal International, Islamic Issue
In his Friday sermon marking International Qods (Jerusalem) Day, Tehran's interim Friday prayer leader, Hashemi Rafsanjani said that the issue of Qods was "still most acute, most vital, and most pivotal issue of the Islamic world, and probably [of the] international community."
Rafsanjani, who is also Expediency Council chairman, stressed, "Among the other lingering and great world events, you can trace no other nation that has suffered as much pain and injustice as the Palestinian nation, for almost an entire century."
He also referred to the late Imam Khomeini's concern for Palestine, pointed out that Palestine has always been at center of Iran's foreign policy, and called Khomeini's declaring the last Friday of Ramadan as International Qods Day a great initiative.
On rallies across Iran to mark Qods Day, he said, "The alert and broad presence of the Iranian nation at International Qods Day rallies is quite effective in changing attitudes towards Palestine in the world, and the issue is becoming a grassroots move[ment] in Islamic countries."
He added that Britain, the Islamic countries and particularly the Arab countries, the U.S., France, and the U.N. are the parties responsible for the great human catastrophe in Palestine, but that the main criminal was Britain.
Rafsanjani criticized the West, in particular the U.S., for supporting Israeli aggression, and criticized the Arab silence in the face of that aggression. He also criticized both the U.S. and France for arming Israel with nuclear weapons. Saying that the Palestinian struggle would ultimately bear fruit, he called Palestinians a model for all resistance movements.
Sources: IRNA, Press TV, Iran, September 26, 2008
Posted at: 2008-09-26
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