The Iranian foreign minister hosted an Iftar dinner, an annual reception in the holy month of Ramadan, with the ambassadors of Islamic countries in Tehran on Wednesday.
In an address to the ceremony, Zarif said the Islamic world is in “painful circumstances” at present.
“No pain and threat is worse than the fact that certain regional countries support the shameful deal of the century,” he deplored.
“Quds is not up for sale,” the top Iranian diplomat underlined, describing the Palestinian city as the first Qibla (the direction that should be faced when a Muslim prays) and the “centerpiece of aspirations” of all Muslims.
The Iftar ceremony was held ahead of the International Quds Day, an annual event during which demonstrators express their solidarity with the Palestinian people and opposition to the occupation of the Palestinian territories by the Zionist regime of Israel.
This year’s Quds Day on the last Friday of Ramadan will be marked against a backdrop of growing anti-US and anti-Israeli sentiments among Muslims, aggravated by the White House’s push to hammer out what it calls a peace deal between Palestine and Israel, known as the “deal of century”.
