(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - “The entirety of Palestine belongs to all Muslims and occupiers must leave Muslim lands,” Tehran's Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami said on the International Quds Day.
“Do not talk about so-called borders. Talk about the entirety of Palestine for all of Palestine belongs to Muslims,” he added
The cleric said that the past 70 years have proven resistance is the best solution to end the occupation of Palestine and that negotiation and concessions have brought nothing but disgrace for displaced Palestinians.
“Resistance and intifada are what have brought oppressed Palestinians glory,” he said, adding that it was because of resistance movements that Israeli attempts to erase the Palestinian issue from the world failed.
Ayatollah Khatami referred to increasing unrest and anti-regime protests across Israel and said the time is close for Palestinian resistance fighters to embrace victory.
Tehran's interim Friday Prayers leader further praised the advancing wave of Islamic Awakening in Arab nations and said, “Dictators are being toppled one after another and the Islamic Awakening is revealing their disgrace to the world.”
The cleric highlighted the religious nature of the Middle East revolutions by referring to the Islamic slogans revolutionaries have been chanting in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and other Arab countries.
He described former Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's escape to Saudi Arabi and toppled Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak's appearance before a court in a metal cage as the shameful fate awaiting all dictators.
Ayatollah Khatami said dictators in Muslims states have two options to either meet the demands of their people and save face by voluntarily stepping down or resist their people's demands and face execution.
He went on to advise Libyan revolutionaries to prevent the US and Europe from hijacking their revolution and bringing another dictator to power in the country.
“If it were not for the resistance of the people of Libya, Western countries would be willing to tolerate the [Libyan] dictator just like in the past and to continue to plunder Libya's natural resources and wealth .”
Popular protests in the Arab world erupted in Tunisia and soon toppled Ben Ali's regime in January. Egyptians followed suit and overthrew Mubarak after more than four decades in power.
In Libya, Gaddafi launched a military campaign to stop the revolutionaries, who captured key cities and oil hubs and managed to advance to the capital and capture the embattled ruler's residence.
The triumph comes months after NATO launched a major air campaign against the forces of the Libyan regime in mid-March under a UN mandate to “protect the Libyan population.”
The Western coalition airstrikes claimed the lives of scores of civilians.
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