The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed that the US would be unable to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and that the Jewish state would ultimately disappear from the Middle East.
Speaking at a meeting of Iran’s Hajj organization on Monday, Khamenei addressed President Donald Trump’s ambitions to reach an historic accord between Israel and the PA, an agreement he dubbed the “deal of the century”.
The 78-year-old Shi’ite Muslim cleric called the deal a ‘plot’ by the US and Israel to remove Jerusalem from “Palestine”, and secure ‘Zionist control’ over the city, the Iranian Mehr media outlet reported
“To America’s dismay, the Palestinian cause will never be forgotten and al-Quds will remain the capital of Palestine,” said Khamenei.
The Iranian leader chastised Muslim states which he said had yielded to American pressure regarding Israel.
“Regrettably, some Muslim governments, due to their lack of faith in the principle of Islam, never mind the Palestinian cause, have chosen to sacrifice themselves for the US.”
Ultimately, Khamenei predicted, the Jewish state will disappear from the Middle East.
“But this too will come to nothing and they will see the day when the roots of the fabricated Zionist regime will dry up.”
“Today, the Muslim World needs unanimity. Division is forbidden, because the enemy is focused on the Islamic World.”
Late last month, a close aide to Khamenei warned that Iran was prepared for a war by proxy with the US and Israel.
“The Americans and the Zionists are the major threats that may wage a proxy war in in the region,” said the official, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, according to the Mehr news agency.
On Sunday, explosions were reported outside of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo at an airbase used by Iranian forces deployed in Syria.
The attacks, attributed to Israel, killed 22, including 9 Iranian soldiers, Arab media outlets claimed.
Israel has not confirmed that it was responsible for the airstrikes.
