Iran leader urges Muslims to block Trump’s ‘doomed’ peace plan
Ali Khamenei says Palestine ‘one of most important issues of Muslim world,’ asserts US proposal a ‘crime against human society’
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s supreme leader Saturday called on all Muslims to support the Palestinian people in their opposition to the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan.
In a letter marking the Islamic hajj pilgrimage, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the still-unreleased US plan was a “ruse” that’s “doomed to failure.”
He also called for “active participation” in efforts to block the US plan, which faces deep skepticism from the Palestinians because of policies they see as biased toward Israel.
“Today, one of the most important issues of the Muslim world is Palestine, which is at the top of Muslims’ political issues, regardless of their school of thought, race, and language. The greatest injustice in recent history has happened in Palestine,” Khamenei wrote, according to semi-official news agency ISNA.
The supreme leader called the Trump plan “a crime against human society, and not just the Palestinian nation.”
The US has so far kept the political elements of its plan under wraps, while the economic aspects of it were presented in June by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner at an American-led conference in Bahrain. The economic aspect of the plan would see a $50 billion investment package for the Palestinians and the wider region
The Palestinians skipped the Bahrain conference and have rejected the peace plan outright, pressing on with their boycott of the administration since Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017 and cut Palestinian aid.
This year’s hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia comes amid heightened tensions in the nearby Persian Gulf between the US and Iran.
Khamenei also in the letter called on fellow Muslims to condemn the Islamic State as well as the “Zionist regime” all while “refusing racism, and discrimination based on geography, race and color of skin.”
