Top Cleric Views Middle East Talks as Plot to “Legitimize” Israel
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Tehran's Provisional Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ahmad Khatami dismissed the resumption of so-called peace talks between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Tel Aviv as a US-sponsored plot to legitimize the Zionist regime of Israel.
“The Palestinian issue will be solved only through (anti-Israel) resistance, and (through) nothing else. All these talks are aimed at legitimizing the Zionist regime (of Israel) and provide safety for the regime,” Khatami said, addressing a large group of worshipers here in Tehran today.
The Iranian cleric further stressed that Palestinians have achieved several victories, thanks to strong resistance against the Israeli forces.
Khatami also laid the blame on the US for its push to revive the compromise talks, arguing that talks have not yielded any result for the oppressed Palestinians over the past 60 years.
Earlier, US Secretary of State John Kerry said last week that the Palestinian Authority and Israel have agreed to meet and prepare for the resumption of talks.
The Palestinian-Israeli talks were halted in September 2010 over disagreements on Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds (Jerusalem), and the Gaza Strip and are demanding that Israel withdraw from the Palestinian territories occupied in the Six-Day War of 1967.
Tel Aviv, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to discuss the issue of al-Quds.
