Houthi Leader Echoes Iran's Bellicose Remarks On Quds Day

Delivering a speech on the occasion of Quds day, the last Friday of Ramadan, Hassan Nasrallah said the path of armed resistance has proven that Israel would not prevail, noting, “We have inflicted many successive defeats on this regime so far”.

He described solo attacks as a special new development deemed dangerous for Israel, and said such operations expose the weaknesses of the Israeli security apparatus because they require no operation room or facilities.

Nasrallah said such operations have damaged the Israelis’ confidence in their army and government, showing them that “security and occupation do not come together”.

Calling for more suicide attacks, he said that “the liberation of Palestine does not require strong armies but needs mujahideen”.

Nasrallah also praised Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for supporting “the resistance”, saying, "What Imam Khamenei said today underscored his serious and firm commitment to supporting Palestine and the resistance movements in the region."

Earlier in the day, Khamenei warned Arab countries against normalizing ties with Israel, saying that today the Israeli army "has been forced to turn its aggressive formation into a defensive one" and the United States has suffered major setbacks.

Saudi Arabian daily Okaz said last week that Hezbollah has asked Iran for $25 million in addition to the annual funds it receives from Tehran to finance the group’s activities for parliamentary elections in Lebanon.

On Thursday night, social media users were spreading the claim on Telegram channels that the Qatari envoy, initially named as Ali Ben Hamad Al Sulaiti, had been targeted on a Tehran street. The current ambassador is Mohammed bin Hamad Al Hajri, who replaced Al Sulaiti after he announced as Qatar's ambassador to Peru in 2018.

Iran’s foreign ministry cautioned media outlets to be careful over reporting such ‘news,’ while the Qatari embassy did not comment.

Tehran supported Doha after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Bahrain launched an economic boycott of Qatarin 2017. The quartet made 13 demands of Qatar including ending any ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and Saudi opposition, closing the al-Jazeera television station, and restricting relations with Iran.

During February’s visit by President Ebrahim Raisi to Doha for the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, the two countries signed several deals. Iran and Qatar share the world’s biggest gas-field, with Iran’s portion known as South Pars and Qatar’s as North Dome.

A statement issued Friday by the provincial office of the intelligence ministry said that all members of the cell had been arrested, thwarting plans by the “terrorist outfit” for operations timed to coincide with international Quds Day, which falls on the last Friday of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, April 29 in 2022, and Labor Day, May 1.

“Gathering information from labor unions, inciting rallies in front of governorates, trying to provoke clashes and riots, documenting protests, spreading false news about the killing or suicide of Kurdish women, and insulting religious sanctities have been the core activities of this group,” the announcement said.

Along with other Kurdish groups and parties, Komala uses bases in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, and its peshmerga have for decades been involved in intermittent clashes with Iran’s armed forces.

Generally, the Kurdish parties − including Komala and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) − favor Kurdish autonomy within a federal Iran. Pejak (the Free Life Party of Kurdistan), an affiliated of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), formed in Turkey but also based in northern Iraq, has generally favored a unified, independent Kurdistan uniting Kurds in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Iran.

Khamenei in televized remarks claimed that "everything is signalling a new equation in Palestine’s present and future," as the Israeli army "has been forced to turn its aggressive formation into a defensive one."

However, he did not explain the reasons for his perception of a change in the region. Khamenei also tried to portray the United States as "the most important supporter of Israel," finding itself in a weak state.

"The United States of America, has suffered consecutive defeats in the war in Afghanistan, in its maximum pressure policy against Iran, in trying to control the economy of the world, in the internal management of its own affairs and the deep rift that has developed in the US establishment." He also said that America has been defeated by "Asian powers," probably meaning China and North Korea.

Meanwhile, the 83-year-old cleric claimed that opinion "polls show almost 70% of Palestinians in the 1948 and 1967 borders and in the surrounding camps (Lebanon, Syria) encourage their leaders to carry out attacks on Israel." He did not mention the source of the poll in question.

Referring to recent sporadic unrest in Jerusalem, Khamenei also claimed that moves by "Palestinian youth, and the military manoeuvres in Gaza indicate that all of Palestine has turned into an arena of resistance."

Khamenei's uncompromising remarks came as nuclear talks with the US have come to a standstill because of the destablizing role of the Revolutionary Guard in the region.

He further claimed that "the Zionist regime is out of breath," and that "the formation of the resistance in West Asia has been the most blessed phenomenon in this region in recent decades."

The Islamic Republic calls its campaign against Israel the ‘resistance’, including militant forces it supports in the region.

While renewing his support for jihadists in Palestinian territories, Khamenei condemned regional countries for normalizing their ties with Israel. He said: "The Islamic Republic supports the resistance camp. It advocates and supports the Palestinian Resistance. We have always said this, we have always acted on this, and we have stood by it."

Khamenei added: "We condemn the treacherous move to normalize relations with Israel. We condemn the policy of a normalization of relations." He further charged that those Arab states which have normalized ties with Israel "have behaved treacherously and have brought disgrace to the Arab world."

Meanwhile several military commanders and politicians boasted about Iran's power and condemned regional countries for trying to normalize relations with Israel. IRGC Commander Hossein Salami in a televised message to Palestinians that was broadcast on Iran's Arabic speaking Al-Alam TV once again promised that "Israel will soon be wiped off the map."

In another development, IRGC Intelligence Chief Hosein Taeb said that the Islamic Republic has empowered its forces to launch intelligence offensives against Israel.

President Ebrahim Raisi in speech delivered in Tehran warned the regional Arab states who have normalized their ties with Israel that "Normalization of relations with Israel is tantamount to nurturing a snake up your sleeve."

The Speaker of the Iranian Parliament (Majles) Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said during a meeting with senior Hamas officials in Tehran that "resistance groups should make normalization of ties with Israel costly for Muslim countries."

The statement by Stockholm was issued on Thursday after the Swedish prosecutors requested a life sentence for former Iranian prison guard, Hamid Noury (Nouri), on trial in Sweden for his role in the killings of thousands of prisoners in 1988.

Sweden is probably worried that Iran may detain Swedish citizens to have more bargaining chips for the release of Nouri, who was arrested in November 2019 while visiting Sweden and charged with war crimes for his role in the execution of up to 5,000 political prisoners. Sweden used the principal of universal jurisdiction to arrest and prosecute Noury, because the alleged crimes amounted to war crimes.

According to the ministry, this means travel advisory with the purpose of visiting or tourism will be valid until further notice and covers the whole country.

The statement said law enforcement’s activities and interpretation of the law may violate international norms in the Islamic Republic and foreign travelers can be arbitrarily detained and prosecuted without clear reasons.

A Swedish-Iran scientist Ahmad-Reza Djalai faces the death sentence in Iran after he was arrested on trumped-up charges of spying.

Sweden on March 10 deported back to Iran two alleged Iranian agentswho were arrested for links to a terrorist plot, instead of putting them on trial, since it does not want more tensions in its relations with Tehran.