Iran: Regional situation resembles ‘powder keg’ ready to explode

Iran’s foreign minister has likened the current situation in West Asia to a “powder keg” ready to explode, expressing hope for an end to Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinians in the fully besieged Gaza Strip.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks on Thursday before leaving the Saudi port city of Jeddah, where he attended an emergency meeting of the Executive Committee of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the bloody Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

He said all the foreign ministers who participated in the session agreed on the immediate cessation of the regime’s war crimes.

The top diplomats, he said, were also seriously concerned about the spillover of the war, something that seems inevitable and may happen at any hour.

“The circumstances in the region resemble a powder keg with the possibility of being exploded or getting out of control. We hope to see an end to war crimes against the people of Gaza as soon as possible,” Amir-Abdollahian said.

The Iranian foreign minister also noted that in talks with his counterparts on the sidelines of the OIC meeting he had censured US President Joe Biden for his visit to the region in support of the criminal and warmongering side.

“In the bilateral meetings, there was serious criticism of US President Biden; first of all, because a hospital in Gaza has been targeted by Zionist bombs and more than a thousand civilians, patients and medical staff have been martyred, but Biden visits the region in support of the warmonger and secondly, as put by one of the foreign ministers, ‘Biden came and a dinosaur gave birth to a fly’ - where with all boasts of Democrats about human rights and humanitarian issues, he announced that they had arranged for 20 trucks of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza in the coming days,” Amir-Abdollahian said.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance group Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity.

The Tel Aviv regime has killed over 3,780 Palestinians, including at least 1,520 children and 1,000 women. Well over 12,400 Palestinians have been injured.

Israel has also blocked water, food and electricity to Gaza, plunging the coastal sliver into a humanitarian crisis.

The deadliest Israeli strike was carried out on Tuesday night, when the regime hit Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza. About 500 people were killed.

Amir-Abdollahian said, "I would like to announce out loud that time is running out and if the warmongers think that they can remove the resistance and Hamas from Gaza, they are definitely bluffing.

"They used to make such a claim years ago about removing and disarming Hezbollah in Lebanon, but the world has witnessed that Hezbollah is in its strongest condition and position."

Referring to the Israeli carnage, Amir-Abdollahian said the occupiers along with the White House have made a “ridiculous claim” by blaming the attack on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.

Biden tells Netanyahu US ‘fully in support’ of Israeli ground invasion of Gaza: Report

The US president reportedly offered the Israeli prime minister his “private backing” to press ahead with a plan to send troops for a ground invasion of Gaza.

“The US cannot whitewash [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s image despite standing behind him to attribute this rare crime against Gaza patients to the resistance,” Iran’s foreign minister stated.

In his address to the OIC meeting, the Iranian foreign minister had underlined the need for political and economic sanctions against Israel and the trial of the regime’s leaders for crimes against humanity.

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