In a video message to a Quds Day conference in the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday, Ali Akbar Velayati said that 40 years after Imam Khomeini's declaration of Ramadan's last Friday as the International Quds Day, Palestinians have been able to push back Israeli occupation forces and "reverse the regime's expansionism."
"Although the past 40 years have had its own ups and downs, magnificent victories have been achieved such as the liberation of southern Lebanon, the liberation of Gaza and Israel's constant defeats in wars of aggression against resistance forces in Gaza and Lebanon," Velayati said.
The veteran Iranian diplomat noted that the Tel Aviv regime came into existence due to "treacherous" deeds by the UK and other Western nations 70 years ago, an event Palestinians refer to as Nakba, or literally "the disaster."
"The UK and France first partitioned the countries in the region and then disarmed the Palestinian nation and made them easy prey for armed-to-the-teeth Zionists," he added.
"Nakba is not a disaster bound to a certain period of time," Velayati said. "It's an ongoing disaster that we live each second."
"Seventy years later, however, the Palestinian people remain refugees but still maintain their strong and powerful identity."
Velayati said the "sad" status quo in the Muslim world, where some Islamic governments are "secretly" supporting Israeli crimes, has emboldened US President Donald Trump to speak of a so-called "deal of century" for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"Looks like Trump is planning to hand Israelis all they want by forcing a shameful solution upon Arabs and the Palestinians, and he already has the support of some Arab leaders," he argued.
"However, those leaders, no matter how young and inexperienced, do not have the guts to make their support public as it goes against the will of all Muslim nations," Velayati added, taking an indirect jab at Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who is known to have established secret ties with Tel Aviv.
Referring to this year's "March for Return" protests across the Gaza Strip and Israel's inability to stop them despite widespread use of deadly force against unarmed protesters, Velayati said Palestinians had begun a new Intifada resistance movement markedly different from similar movements in the past.
Resistance on individual and collective levels, periodic nature of the new protests that have made them unpredictable and unstoppable, and the newly-found belief in resistance that has united Palestinians regardless of their possible differences of opinion are the three aspects of the new Intifada, according to Velayati.
Ayatollah Khamenei's adviser concluded his remarks by calling on all Muslims to set aside their differences and join forces to free al-Quds.
"Quds is the symbol of Palestine; Quds is the symbol of all that is holy to Muslim nations; the highest symbol of unity that can bring together all Muslims from all sects and ideologies," he said, noting that Islamic unity revolves around "Quds' liberation."
The Islamic world has been outraged following Trump's decision to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem al-Quds, Islam's third holy city and the capital of a future Palestinian state.
