Tehran Friday Prayer Leader: ‎

Hijacking of tanker reminds Iranians of dark days of British colonialism

The United Kingdom’s hijacking of Iranian oil tanker brings back the memories of a multitude ‎of crimes committed against the Iranian nation by the “cunning, colonial fox,” according to ‎Ayatollah Khatami, the interim Friday prayer leader of Tehran.‎

News ID: 446150

Date: 26 July 2019 - 23:19

RNA – Ayatollah Sayyed Ahmad Khatami, the interim Friday prayer leader of Tehran, said ‎during this week’s sermon that the United Kingdom’s hijacking of an Iranian tanker reminds ‎the Iranian nation of a multitude of the cunning, colonial fox’s crimes.

In Iran, people often refer to the United Kingdom for its long history of intervention in the ‎country’s affairs before the 1979 revolution as the “cunning, colonial fox.”‎

Ayatollah Khatami said that the British have provoked the hatred of the Iranian nation by ‎their actions.‎

He said that the United Kingdom ‎spearheaded a campaign to partition in Iran in 1857, 1872, ‎‎1901 and 1971. They had a long history of interfering in Iran’s internal affairs, according to ‎the Friday prayer leader, and now they are accompanying the United States in its unjust ‎sanctions against the Iranian nation.‎

The senior cleric further thanked the Iranian Intelligence Ministry for dismantling a 17-‎member team of CIA agents before they could take any action inside the country.‎

Ayatollah ‎Khatami further referred to recent reductions in the JCPOA-related commitments on ‎the part of Iran in the face of the other parties’ lack of action to abide by their ‎commitments, saying that Iran’s actions should be continued in line with Iranian people’s ‎demands.‎

He also pointed to trip by a Palestinian delegation to Tehran headed by Saleh al-Arouri, the ‎deputy chairman of the political bureau of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement ‎‎(Hamas) and their meetings with high-ranking Iranian official including the Supreme Leader of ‎the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei, stressing that “just as the Supreme Leader said ‎the Islamic Republic is absolutely serious when it comes to the Palestine issue.”‎

He further stressed that Iran along with other liberation movements will stand against the ‎United States’ peace plan for Palestine dubbed as the “Deal of the Century,” describing some ‎Arab states’ accompanying with Israel and the United States as “treason.”‎

He went on to condemn continued illegal detention of top Shi’ah cleric Shaykh Ibrahim ‎Zakzaky by the Nigerian government, saying that Iran will accept the Nigerian cleric with ‎open arms for his medical treatment as he is in a critical condition these days.‎

He further blamed Saudi Arabia and Israel for Shaykh Zakzaky’s case.‎

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