'Apartheid Israeli regime encircled by resistance front, doomed to crumble'

A top Iranian official says Israel has been caught off guard and is encircled by the resistance front, adding that normalization of ties between the Tel Aviv regime and some Arab states laid bare relations that had developed behind the scenes.

Kamal Kharrazi, the head of Iran's Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, made the remarks in a meeting with the visiting secretary general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, in Tehran on Tuesday.

Kharrazi, a senior advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, described Israel as an apartheid regime and said such illegal entities are doomed to fall apart.

“The Zionist regime is an apartheid regime, and the fact that the United Nations has described the regime as apartheid is of paramount significance from an international perspective. According to natural law, apartheid regimes are doomed to failure,” the former Iranian foreign minister asserted.

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He went on to describe Iran’s support for Palestinian resistance groups as the main pillar of the Islamic Republic’s grand strategy.

“Today, the Zionist regime is surrounded by the resistance [front]. If you put yourself in their shoes, it is easy to realize how concerned they (Zionists) are about their survival,” Kharrazi said.

Pointing to longstanding secret ties between the Israeli regime and some Arab states, Kharrazi said what was being referred to as the normalization of relations between some Arab countries and Israel is merely the exposé of [long-running] clandestine ties with the Zionist regime.

"In the past, those countries did not openly support Palestine, but facilitated normalization with Israel," the former top Iranian diplomat hastened to add.

He went on to say that US President Joe Biden did not achieve anything other than failure from his maiden visit to the Middle East, stressing that Israeli officials’ political exploitation of the visit clearly shows the internal problems facing the Tel Aviv regime.

Nakhalah, for his part, appreciated Iran's unwavering support for the Palestinian cause and Palestinian resistance movements.

He expressed confidence that resistance fighters in the Middle East region will eventually emerge victorious against Israel.

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On Tuesday evening, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in his meeting with Nakhalah reaffirmed Iran's commitment to the Palestinian cause, saying Tehran will continue to support the oppressed Palestinian nation against the expansionist policies of the “apartheid” Zionist regime.

The top Iranian diplomat also called for unity and cohesion between Islamic countries in the face of the Israeli regime’s acts of aggression against Palestinians.

Last month, in a meeting with the representatives of Palestinian resistance groups in the Syrian capital, Amir-Abdollahian said Israel was grappling with the worst security and political conditions ever while slamming certain regional countries for normalization of relations with Israel.

“At the present time, Israel is going through its worse security and political conditions. However, there are those who think they can divert public opinion [from problems in their own countries] through normalization of relations with Israel,” Iran's top diplomat said at the time. 

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