Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged Palestinians to keep up their armed struggle against Israel a day after Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to continue talks on a US-backed peace deal.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who hosted in Washington the first session of talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, voiced confidence that this latest attempt to bring peace to the region could succeed where so many others have failed.
Ahmadinejad said that the talks, seeking to end a conflict that has boiled for six decades, would once again fail. He criticised some Muslim leaders for not providing all-out support to the Palestinians in their revolt against Israel.
“The Palestine’s issue cannot be resolved through talks with the enemies of the Palestinian nation. Resisting is the only way to rescue the Palestinians,” Ahmadinejad told worshippers at Tehran University in a live broadcast to mark the annual Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day in the Islamic Republic.
“How can these talks succeed when them mediators were those who created this conflict,” he added.
Netanyahu and Abbas agreed to meet again on Sept. 14-15 with Clinton also present.
Ahmadinejad called on regional leaders in the Middle East to unite against Israel.
The Al-Quds day was launched by Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. It is held on the last Friday of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.
Opposition leader banned
State television said millions marched in a nationwide rally to mark the day, including soldiers, students and clerics.
Black-clad women with small children clutching balloons emblazoned “Death to Israel” were among those flocking the streets of central Tehran.
“Death to America, Death to Israel,” chanted the marchers, many carrying portraits of Khomeini and his successor Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran does not recognise Israel and has repeatedly called for the destruction of the Jewish state as the only solution to the conflict in the Middle East. It backs Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups in their fight against Israel.
“The nations of the region are able to eliminate the Zionist regime from the face of the earth,” said Ahmadinejad, adding that the Israeli “regime has no future. Its life has come to an end”.
The United States accuses Iran of sponsoring terrorism by arming and financing those organisations. Iran says it provides moral support to the Islamist militant groups.
Pro-government hardliners surrounded the house of Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karoubi to prevent him from attending the rally, fearing his presence could revive anti-government protests that jolted Iran after last year’s presidential vote, his website Saham news said.
Mirhossein Mousavi, who along with Karoubi lost to Ahmadinejad in the vote, said he was willing to march toward Karoubi’s house, a move that could revive unrest in Iran.
Authorities deny any vote-rigging and there have been no major rallies since December when eight protesters were killed.
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