Senior cleric urges for Islamic unity against enemies’ plots

“Unity among Muslim world would give a strong slap in the face of the United States,” Ayatollah Seyed Ahmad Khatami said in this week’s Friday prayers in Tehran, which corresponds to the anniversary of Islamic Unity Week between Shias and Sunnis.

In part of his speech, the senior cleric referred to National Week of Mobilized Forces (Basij) and hailed the achievements obtained by the popular mobilization forces in Islamic countries such as Iran, Iraq and Syria.

“The Basij culture played significant role in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen as well,” Khatami noted.

He fired back at the US president’s move in calling Iranians a terrorist nation, underlining “you are terrorists. Terrorist is your nickname. You are backing terrorism. You sent terrorists to Syria and you are supporting Saudi Arabia that is the main cause of formation of ISIL and other terrorist groups.”

Tehran provisional Friday prayers leader further ridiculed Donald Trump for being obsessive with fame as the main reason for calling Iran terrorist, saying “he wants to attract people’s attention as nobody pays attention to him. With Allah’s help, the Iranian nation will humiliate the US once again.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, the senior cleric referred to UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt's visit to Iran and his call for release of a dual national imprisoned in the country on espionage charges, stressing that the Iranian diplomatic apparatuses should not have allowed him to interfere in Iran’s internal affairs.

He, later in his speech, condemned the UK and other Western countries support for Saudi-led coalition’s crimes in Yemen, calling on the international community to break silence and put pressures on the US as the main backer of Saudis to end the bloodshed in the war torn country.

Khatami, at the end of his speech, pointed to recent clashes between Israeli regime and Hamas, praising the Palestinian resistance for pressuring Israelies to have a reshuffle in the cabinet.

“We hope that before the 25 years’ deadline passes, we will witness the destruction of the Zionist regime,” he said.

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