TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hailed the level of Muslim countries’ presence in an extraordinary Islamic summit held in Istanbul, Turkey, to coordinate a response to a US decision to recognize Jerusalem (al-Quds) as Israel’s capital. “Inspired by very high level participation at extraordinary OIC summit, despite handful of telling exceptions,” Iran’s […]
TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hailed the level of Muslim countries’ presence in an extraordinary Islamic summit held in Istanbul, Turkey, to coordinate a response to a US decision to recognize Jerusalem (al-Quds) as Israel’s capital.
“Inspired by very high level participation at extraordinary OIC summit, despite handful of telling exceptions,” Iran’s top diplomat wrote on his Twitter account on Wednesday.
“The entire Muslim world stands in solidarity with Palestinians and rejects Trump’s gifting of what he does not own to those who have no right to it,” Zarif added.
Representatives from 57 member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), including Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, are attending the summit, convened on Wednesday, a week after US President Donald Trump’s controversial recognition of the holy city as the capital of Israel and his decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Quds.
In his address to OIC leaders, Rouhani described the Zionists as “strangers” who have planted seeds of regional violence in the Middle East.
Rouhani expressed Iran’s preparedness to cooperate with Muslim countries to defend the Palestinian rights and called on Muslims across the world to unite against Israel’s policies.
The Iranian chief executive slammed certain regional states for seeking to establish relations with the Zionist regime. “Today it is no secret that the biggest enemy of the Jews are not the Muslims and Arabs but the dangerous project of Zionism,” he said.
Quds is under Israel’s control. The international community views the regime’s grip on the eastern part of the city, which came after the Six-Day War of 1967, as illegal, and urges talks to decide the fate of the entire city in any future peace deal.
