RNA – In an interview with Rasa News Agency, Dr. Iyad Zaqout, the Programme Manager for the UNRWA Community Mental Health Programme (CMHP), spoke about International al-Quds Day, saying: “I remember as if it was yesterday when Imam Khomeini, with his staff in his hand, referred to Iran and said ‘from here until Jerusalem al-Quds, this land will be liberated.’”
He expressed regret that “mercenary states which are dependent on the United States and the Zionist regime” did not take the words of the late founder of the Iranian Islamic Revolution seriously and armed Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, to the teeth in order to attack Iran in order to eliminate the Islamic Republic and prevent it from achieving this historic goal guided by the Imam.
Dr. Zarqout said that the issue of Jerusalem al-Quds is one of the unchanging principles of the Islamic Republic and understanding this is not possible for many. “It is important to ask is that Iran was not directly at war with the Zionist regime, from a geographic and diplomatic perspective, so what was the duty that Imam Khomeini placed on the Muslim ummah and how to fulfill it?” he asked.
He replied that it seems that the current duty of the Muslim world is to financially and militarily support the Palestinian resistance movements but more importantly, we name one day out of the year as al-Quds Day and explain it as one of the most important events in the Muslim world so Muslims remember the first qiblah and the third holiest site in Islam on that day.
“Imam Khomeini, with his divine perspective, changed all the rules and introduced the last Friday of Ramadan as International al-Quds Day,” he said.
Dr. Zaquot said a dangerous problem now facing Muslims and the Islamic world is that some Arab rulers seek to normalize their relations with Israel and emphasized that this policy is not a political issue because the Arab governments are not only eager to establish relations with the Zionist usurper but rather they consider it an important duty of theirs.
He added that many of these rulers came to power for the sole purpose of normalizing their relations with Israel. The result of their actions are clear – all the wars that have taken shape in the Middle East, the sedition that has been created between Sunnis and Shi’as and various ethnic groups under various titles in the Islamic ummah are threats that the Islamic world must confront and find ways to solve them.
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