AhlulBayt News Agency

source : Alwaght
Sunday

26 February 2017

8:38:39 AM
814201

Naim Qassem: Iran reinstates Palestine issue atop, Saudi Arabia sidelines it

The Sixth International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifada, Hold in Iran's capital on 21, 22 February, can restore the Palestinian cause atop as it was a priority earlier, Sheikh Naim Qassem said.

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - The Sixth International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifada, Hold in Iran's capital on 21, 22 February, can restore the Palestinian cause atop as it was a priority earlier, Sheikh Naim Qassem, the deputy secretary-general of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, told Alwaght

Alwaght correspondent has conducted an interview with Sheikh Naim Qassem, the deputy secretary-general of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, covering a set of issues including the nature of the recently held international Palestinian intifada conference and the goals and messages it sought to send at this specific time, the Saudi Arabian regional aims and Riyadh's convergence of stances with the Israeli regime on dealing with Iran in the region.

Alwaght: What is the significance of the Tehran international conference on the Palestinian intifada at this very time while the world is seeking to push the Palestinian cause to the sidelines and finally terminate it?

Sheikh Qassem: The importance of this conference lies in the fact that it drew the direction and united the positions and accentuated that the Palestinian cause should remain the top priority. The speech of the Iranian Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei as a top figure of the conference sent a clear message, telling the others that everybody needs to return to the Palestinian cause as a central case in need of attention. We watched the Israeli reactions to this conference and saw their tremendous and obvious irritation. This tells us that the time was appropriate to reconsider the Palestinian case. At the same time, I think that the big attendance from world parliaments and political movements sent a seriously significant and critical signal at the current time, and I believe it will restore the Palestinian cause atop as it was a priority earlier.

Alwaght: What do you think is the Saudi goal behind its persistent attacking on the Islamic Republic of Iran, its ongoing bids to marginalize the Palestinian issue, and its attempts to normalize diplomatic ties with the Israeli regime?

Sheikh Qassem: Saudi Arabia has a plan to accomplish. It wants to dominate the region in any way. On the other side, Iran’s solidarity with the Palestinian cause and its backing for it deeply angered Saudi Arabia because it wants to drive out the Palestinian conflict and make deals with the Israeli regime.

In the eyes of Saudi Arabia the best way now to obtain its goals is religious division and highlighting the religious and sectarian disputes to cover up the political crisis it is experiencing as a result of its terrible pro-Israeli stances. This issue has become widespread and known to all. At the end of the road, everybody will understand that there is no religious conflict in the region, rather; there is a real political struggle and Saudi Arabia is on the other end of the anti-Resistance camp.

Alwaght: What is your plan to confront the takfirst and radical factions particularly after their large-scale permeation through some of the Arab and world countries, and as we see they began to spread in Lebanon and the countries around?

Sheikh Qassem: We have been doing our job for several years and we dealt painful blows to these takfirst groups. We keep doing the same work and we are very conscious of them. I think that the extremist and terrorist groups have retreated due to our measures and the positions of our allies who moved with us in the same way. Today, we see the takfirsts everywhere in the world. But Hezbollah has managed to take them on and inflict on them seriously strong losses.




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