Iran: Israel’s rejection of Palestinian state 'exposes ugly face of occupying regime'

Iran has denounced Israel's rejection of a Palestinian state, saying it disproves the occupying regime’s previous claims about peace with Palestinians and the resolution of the decades-long conflict.

The reaction came after the Israeli Knesset (parliament) and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right Israeli cabinet reiterated opposition to an independent Palestinian state.

The opposition, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan'ani wrote on X Friday, "once again exposed the ugly face as well as warmongering and occupying nature of the regime".

“The regime’s fraudulent approach calls into question unrewarding past agreements as well as bogus claims for peace, which Zionist authorities had been promoting through scam and deception over the past few decades," he said. 

He said Israel, like in the past, intends to deny the Palestinian people their inalienable and undeniable rights, including self-determination and formation of an independent state on its historical land.

"The Palestinian nation and resistance factions are well aware of Zionists’ sinister plots and believe that the ongoing conflict could be resolved only through the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with al-Quds as its capital."

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Kan'ani said Iran and other freedom-loving and justice-seeking nations support the demands and rights of the Palestinian people, which have been denied for more than seven decades.

He stressed the need for a national referendum to allow Palestinians exercise their right to self-determination. He said the only way to end war and bloodshed and restore peace and security to the region is to respect decisions taken by original inhabitants of Palestinian lands.

The Israeli Knesset voted on Wednesday to support Netanyahu's rejection of a Palestinian state. Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli cabinet approved a declaration, rejecting any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.

The vote was condemned by the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, which accused Israel of holding the rights of the Palestinian people hostage by occupation of territories where Palestinians seek to establish a state.

“The ministry reaffirms that the State of Palestine’s full membership in the United Nations and its recognition by other nations does not require permission from Netanyahu,” it said in a statement.

The Palestinians hope to establish an independent state of their own in the Gaza Strip and West Bank with East al-Quds as its capital.

Israel occupied East al-Quds during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, claiming all of al-Quds as its “eternal and undivided” capital in a move never recognized by the international community.

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