Rasa News Agency – Brigadier-General Mohammad-Reza Naqdi, the commander of the Organization for the Mobilization of the Oppressed (Basij), spoke in Tabriz at an event commemorating the martyrs and merchants of East Azerbaijan province who either died or suffered for the sake of God during the Imposed War (Iran-Iraq War). During part of his speech, Commander Naqdi condemned the Israeli atrocities in the Gaza Strip, saying: “With its brutal crimes in the Gaza Strip, including the murder of children, the usurping Zionist regime has exposed itself to the entire world.”
“Human rights and freedom are in fact the West’s false ideals, adding the whole world saw that the Western style democracy has been translated into the killing of innocent children. They should know that the spilled blood of children and defenceless people of Gaza is a final stamp on the West and Zionist regime’s liberal democracy,” the commander explained.
Commander Naqdi stressed that the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a strong supporter of the oppressed people of Palestine and Gaza. He called on the Iranian parliament to support a bill to send humanitarian aid to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This aid will include food and medicine. Iran is also willing to provide military aid to the Palestinians.
The motion has been initiated in response to a recent US Congress bill to send military aid to Israel. Iran has on many occasions helped the Palestinian nation in its fight against the Israeli occupation of their lands. This week, US President Barack Obama approved $225 million in aid toward Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ missile defence system. Commander Naqdi condemned this act saying the aid supports “the ominous Zionist regime’s killing of (Palestinian) children and women.”
“The Iranian nation’s aid to the Palestinian people recognizes no boundaries and whatever they need; it will be included in our aid. As the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution (Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei) has stressed, we are fully ready to provide any health and hygiene aid as needed whenever the groundwork is prepared; the Iranian nation is also ready to supply the Palestinians with food stuff and arms aid,” he explained.
He added that the power of the Palestinian nation was not due to their military strength, but was in the hands of the merchants and average people. He also explained that many Iranian martyrs of the Iran-Iraq War, such as Mortaza Yaghchian and Ali Akbari, were considered role models for the oppressed people of Palestine as they fought for justice against an unjustly imposed economic war just as the people of Gaza have been during the seven-year long siege imposed on them by Israel and Egypt. Many innocent Palestinian civilians have been killed by the siege and economic sanctions alone.
Commander Naqdi emphasized that those merchants who have suffered due to the brutal siege and economic sanctions on the Gaza Strip are soldiers on the battle of goodness against evil.
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