Palestinian resistance to tap into ‘various capacities’ if Israel continues crimes: Iran FM

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has warned that the Palestinian resistance groups will tap into their various capacities if the Israeli regime presses ahead with savagery in its barbaric onslaught against the besieged Gaza Strip.

Amir-Abdollahian raised the alarm in a meeting with top Lebanese officials, including Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Secretary General of Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in the capital Beirut on Friday during his second stop on a regional tour that has already taken him to Iraq.

In a meeting with Mikati, the Iranian foreign minister described Lebanon's security and peace as important to the Islamic Republic and said one of the goals of his trip was to reaffirm the country’s security and its political process.

Pointing to the issue of Palestine and Israel’s ongoing onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip, Amir-Abdollahian said the recent operation by the Palestinian resistance groups was a 100% Palestinian operation and even the Western governments acknowledged the matter.

The Israeli regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started its brutal aggression against Gaza on Saturday after resistance groups launched multi-pronged Operation al-Aqsa Storm, the largest military operation against the occupying entity in decades, leaving more than 1,300 settlers and troops dead and three times as many injured.

Since then, the resistance groups have fired thousands of rockets in retaliatory strikes at the occupied territories.

“This measure by the Palestinians was a natural reaction to Netanyahu's crimes, especially in recent months,” Amir-Abdollahian told Mikati, adding, “Palestine after al-Aqsa Storm is different from Palestine before that.”

The top Iranian diplomat referred to Netanyahu’s extremism and his radical coalition cabinet as the reasons for the plight of Palestinians and the ongoing situation in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Amir-Abdollahian touched on the US’s unfaltering support for Israeli crimes against Palestinians and said the backing would exacerbate the situation and raise concerns about the opening of new fronts

“The US invites everyone to exercise restraint except Israel, which is unacceptable. They call on everyone to exercise restraint but they give weapons and aid to Israel and allow Netanyahu to freely continue his crimes,” he said.

“The US intends to give Israel time to destroy Gaza and this is the utter mistake of America, and if Americans want to prevent the war in the region from developing, they must contain Israel,” he added.

Warning against the continuation of Israel’s crimes against Palestinians, Amir-Abdollahian said, “The Palestinian resistance is powerful and has high capabilities, and if Israel's crimes continue, the Palestinian resistance will use its other capacities.”

The top Iranian diplomat also underlined the necessity of holding a high-level meeting between the representatives of Islamic countries with regard to Palestine.

Mikati, for his part, described the situation in Gaza as “saddening” and expressed Lebanon’s full support for Palestine and Palestinians.

The Lebanese premier said the bloodbath in Gaza should be stopped immediately, highlighting the necessity of exhausting all efforts to prevent a regional war.

In another meeting on Friday, Amir-Abdollahian and Nasrallah exchanged their views on the latest developments in the region, particularly the latest escalation by the Israeli regime on Gaza.

Israel gives Gazans 24 hours to relocate south; Hamas calls it 'fake propaganda'

The Israeli regime has ordered the entire residents of Gaza City to evacuate the area within 24 hours, in what is viewed as a precursor of a ground invasion.

‘Everything is possible unless Israel stops war crimes’

In a joint press conference with his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib on Friday, the Iranian foreign minister censured the US administration's duplicity in providing the Israeli regime with weapons and concomitantly calling for restraint.

“The Americans cannot send weapons and bombs to kill Palestinians on the one hand and ask all other parties to exercise restraint on the other,” Amir-Abdollahian said. “If the war crimes by the Zionist regime are not stopped, any possibility can open up.”

Bou Habib, for his part, denounced Israel for laying siege to two million people in Gaza and warned that the continuation of tensions would threaten the security of the region as well as international interests.

“We stand by the Palestinian people and call for an end to the siege of Gaza and condemn the crimes of the Zionist regime,” he underlined.

Stating that the world is witnessing a war crime against the residents of Gaza, the top Lebanese diplomat said, “We concurred that crimes against innocent people should be stopped and an urgent meeting should be convened at the level of Islamic countries.” 

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