Iranian leader urges all Muslims to fight Israel
In letter to Lebanese cleric, Ali Khamenei says responsibility for toppling ‘Zionist usurper’ rests on ‘shoulders of the entire Muslim world’
Iran’s top religious and political leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged all Muslims to engage in “different methods” of fighting against Israel.
In a letter to the International Union of Resistance Scholars, a group that has convened anti-Israel gatherings in the past, Khamenei wrote that the “unforgettable responsibility” for removing Israel “rests upon the shoulders of the entire Muslim world.”
The letter, which appears in English translation on Khamenei’s official website, is addressed to the union’s chairman, Lebanese Sunni cleric Sheikh Maher Hamoud. Hamoud, who hails from Sidon in southern Lebanon, advocates an end to the Sunni-Shiite rift and a refocusing of Muslim attention on the Palestinian cause.
In Khamenei’s letter, dated October 30, the Iranian supreme leader seemed to back this view.
He assured Hamoud that “the Divine promise guarantees definite victory [for] the resistance.”
He characterized the broader Muslim effort against Israel as a “vast, public movement,” and urged “all individuals who feel the importance of this great responsibility” to engage in “different methods of fighting against the usurper Zionist regime.”
Khamenei often rails against Israel and urges its destruction in public comments. He has called the US, Israel and Britain Iran’s “main enemies,” and backed upgrading Iran’s military capabilities and support for its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah and the Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, all sworn to Israel’s destruction.
The Times of Israel Community.