Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP) (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
Ali Khamenei

“The fight against the Zionist regime is obligatory for the Muslim world,” Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei declared.

By: Ben Cohen/ The Algemeiner 

Iran’s rulers sounded a uniformly hard line against Israel and the Sunni Arab allies of the US in messages released in honor of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Just four days after Iranian President Hasan Rouhani’s Al-Quds Day message urging Muslims to direct “hatred towards the occupying and usurping regime (Israel),”  the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared — in remarks carried by the Islamist regime’s official media — that “the fight against the Zionist regime is obligatory for the Muslim world.”

Without mentioning specific countries by name, Khamenei denounced Sunni Arab states for failing to resist US attempts to divide Shia and Sunni Muslims. “Unfortunately, some Muslim leaders neglect these hostilities,” he said.

As a result, Khamenei continued, “Palestine is the top concern for the Muslim world, but some Islamic countries are acting in a way so that the Palestinian issue would be ignored and forgotten.”

Khamenei went on to praise Shia Muslims “who take to the streets so magnificently, and express empathy and sympathy with the Palestinians, who are Sunnis.”

The 77-year-old ayatollah also stressed that the Palestinian cause was a religious duty above all else. “According to the Islamic jurisprudence, in the face of domination of the enemy on the Islamic land, all Muslims are obliged to fight in any way possible, and for this reason, it is imperative for all Muslims to fight against the Zionist regime,” he asserted.

Meanwhile, Rouhani used the occasion of Eid al-Fitr to declare solidarity with the Gulf emirate of Qatar — currently facing a hostile coalition of Arab states who object to its funding for Islamist organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, its burgeoning strategic alliance with Iran and the Qatari ruling family’s use of the Al Jazeera media network to advance its political agenda.

The “siege of Qatar is unacceptable,” Rouhani told Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, in a telephone call. “Tehran stands with the Qatari nation and government.”

“Iran’s air space, ground and sea will be always be open to Qatar,” Rouhani declared.