RNA – While countrywide demonstrations marking International al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day have been cancelled in Iran due to the coronavirus outbreak, a series of exceptional plans has been formulated to mark the event, an official said.
The deputy head of the Islamic Development Organization of Iran’s coordination council announced on Sunday that this year’s demonstrations marking the International al-Quds Day will not be held because of the coronavirus outbreak and the health restrictions to contain the epidemic.
However, a special and exceptional event will be held in honor of the al-Quds Day on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadhan, he added, noting that the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, will deliver a speech to the Islamic ummah (community) on May 22.
The Supreme Leader’s speech will be aired live on local and international radio and television channels, he added.
In order to make the most of Ayatollah Khamenei’s speech, no other event will be held in any part of the country in the name of al-Quds Day plans, the official stated.
In early May, General Ramazan Sharif, the head of the Intifadhah (Uprising) and the al-Quds Centre at Iran’s Islamic Propagation Coordination Council, said this year’s al-Quds Day rallies won’t be held since the situation is not normal in the wake of the outbreak of COVID-19.
Unveiling plans for the Leader’s speech on the al-Quds Day, the general said the organizers of the event will take advantage of the media and receive messages from anti-Israeli resistance officials.
He said Ismail Haniyeh, the chief of the political bureau of Islamic resistance movement Hamas, or another major figure of resistance will possibly take part in the al-Quds Day commemorations in Tehran as a guest.
The International al-Quds Day is an annual event during which demonstrators express their solidarity with the Palestinian people and opposition to the occupation of the Palestinian territories by the Zionist regime of Israel.
The day is seen as the legacy of the late founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Khomeyni, who officially declared the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadhan as International al-Quds Day back in 1979.
Tasnim News Agency
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