UPDATE 1200 GMT: Tehran Friday Prayer leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami has called on Muslims around the world to unite against Israel, delcaring, “We will not leave Palestinians alone.”
Khatami said Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital had “proved that the cure for the issue of Palestine is only, only, an intifada — only intifadas can turn day into a dark night for the Zionist regime”.
Marches have been held in Tehran and other Iranian cities.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Iran has challenged Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, saying that the US will soon regret the “foolish” step.
Addressing the International Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran, the Supreme Leader’s top aide, Ali Akbar Velayati, proclaimed:
Trump must beware that this move is the last blow to the US political life in the Islamic world and Western Asia, and it will not be long before the American establishment regrets it. Because it would ignite the wrath of over
1 1/2 billion Muslims.
Velayati’s statement followed initial warnings on Wednesday by the Supreme Leader and President Hassan Rouhani of American “weakness” and “annihilation” of “wrongdoers” who stand alongside Washington.
See also VideoCast with France 24 and Podcasts: Trump’s Jerusalem Mistake
Iran Daily: Khamenei — Trump Decision on Jerusalem “A Sign of Weakness”
Velayati continued on Thursday by positioning Iran and its allies as the defenders of Palestine and the region against enemies, “All of the plots, sedition and warmongering against the Islamic world are, from a certain point of view, aimed at marginalizing the issue of Palestine.”
He combined this with a proclamation of a victory over the Islamic State as the creation of the “most unprecedented” Israeli-US plot: “Today, Daesh no longer exists.” Donald Trump — “rapacious, imprudent, and aggressive” — was mad over this, Velayati said.
The final statement of the Islamic Unity Conference, with more than 500 participants, called for an uprising “to counter the new US policy for Judaizing the Noble al-Quds [Jerusalem] and [gaining] dominance over Muslim sanctities”:
Accordingly, the Muslim world needs a new Palestinian intifada, which is supported by all the countries favoring freedom and human rights as well as all political powers, etc.
