Palestine Is an Islamic as Well as Arab Issue, Says Ali Akbar Velayati

Leader's Aide: Palestine Not an Arab Issue

7 Rabi Al-Awwal 1430 / Thursday 05 Mar 2009

TEHRAN (FNA)-

Advisor to the Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution for International Affairs Ali Akbar Velayati announced Wednesday that the Palestinian issue is a problem that must be dealt with by all Muslim countries and not just the Arab world.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 'Fourth International Conference for Support of Palestine, the Model of Resistance, and Gaza, the Victim of War Crimes', Velayati told reporters, "The Palestinian issue does not exclusively belong to Arab countries."

"Helping war-stricken states is not branded as interference according to international norms," he reiterated.

The Leader's aide noted that Iran recognizes Hamas as Palestine's legal government, and added, "If other states do not support such a legal government, it means they deny Palestinian people's choice for their government."

Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006, with 74 seats to the ruling Fatah's 45, providing Hamas with the majority of the 132 available seats.

Bringing together legal experts from the world's leading rights groups, the conference started work in Tehran on Wednesday morning.

The two-day event is expected to focus on war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out by Israel during its three-week military campaign in the Gaza Strip (December, 2008 to January, 2009).

The participants include senior officials from the main Palestinian groups, such as Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad.

The Leader's advisor stressed that the presence of the real leaders of the Palestinian nation in the conference endorses legitimacy of Iran's action on Palestine.

"Such conference will increase supporters of the Palestinian people in the world and create a positive atmosphere for the benefits of the oppressed (Palestinian) nation," he concluded.

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.