TEHRAN – Iran on Thursday strongly criticized Israel for occupying the Palestinian territories and castigated the true violators of human rights. 

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on Twitter that referendum is a democratic solution to the Palestinian question. 

He said, “Escaping from hearing the realities will not help the apartheid regime. The reality is that Palestine, from ‘Sea to River,’ belongs to the original inhabitants of this holy land.” 

The spokesman added, “Iran believes in a unified Palestine, and the democratic solution to the Palestine issue lies in a resort to the votes of all of its original inhabitants, including Muslims, Christians and Jews, through a referendum.”

The tweet came after Iranian President Ayatollah Seyed Ebrahim Raisi delivered a speech at the UN General Assembly in which he addressed the issue of Palestine. 

Addressing the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday morning local time, Ayatollah Raisi said, “I would like to draw your attention to one of the sad manifestations of injustice, which is the source of all crises in the region. Contemporary history has not seen a nation more oppressed than Palestine and crueler than the occupying regime in Al-Quds.”

He continued, “The Zionist regime, which has more than seventy years of apartheid, oppression and murder of women and children in its dark history, has built the largest prison on earth in Gaza, and the continuation of settlement construction and the images of the oppressed Palestinians crying due to the usurpation of their lands, homes and farms, and the killing of their children, show everyone that seven decades of oppression and occupation by Israel is not over.”

Raisi said, “Governments claiming freedom and democracy must answer why they are running away from the clear and fair formula of the Islamic Republic to solve the Palestinian issue? In oppressed Palestine, we believe in the policy of a single Palestine. All the land of Palestine "from the sea to the river" belongs to the original inhabitants of this historic and holy land. The solution to the Palestinian issue is only to refer to the votes of all Palestinians, including Muslims, Christians and Jews, in the form of holding a comprehensive referendum.”

He stated, “The occupying regime of Al-Quds, which continues to occupy the territories of other countries in the region, cannot be a partner in peace and security.”

Kanaani said the speech delivered by the Iranian president was the voice of countries seeking justice. 

“The speech delivered by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s President to the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly was the voice of the freedom-seeking countries’ pursuit of justice and rights,” the spokesman said on Twitter. 

He added, “The true violators of human rights do not have necessary moral merits to comment on human rights.”

In the speech, Raisi addressed the issue of human rights, saying, “We believe in a common destiny for humanity and support the universalization of justice. We wish for others what we like for ourselves and we do not impose on others what we do not like for ourselves. The Iranian nation believes that justice creates unity, and oppression creates war.”

He added, “If a country claims justice inside itself, but abroad, it trains all kinds of terrorists and kills the nations, or forces the nations to surrender by imposing various pressures, it should be a shame for humanity, freedom, and justice. Humanity is not exclusive to a part of human beings, and human rights are not conceived except by securing the rights of all human beings.”

Raisi noted, “Inspired by religious beliefs and based on the spirit and text of its constitution, the Islamic Republic of Iran has one of the most efficient mechanisms in the protection of human rights, and with the most effective tools, considers the fulfilment of the violated rights of each person as a human mission, a sovereign responsibility, and a divine duty delegated to it by the people. The Islamic Republic considers the double standards of some governments in the field of human rights as the most important factor in the institutionalisation of human rights violations, which results in diverse and numerous positions towards an incident under investigation in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the deathly silence about the killing of dozens of helpless women in a short time in one of the western countries. As long as this double standards persists, human rights will not be safe from repeated violations.”

The Iranian president said, “Above human rights, the rights of nations are easily trampled by oppressive powers. The right of Canadian indigenous communities whose children were buried in mass graves in schoolyards instead of school classes; the right to self-determination of the Palestinian nation, the right to development of nations under sanctions, the right to life of nations under occupation or victims of terrorism, the right to life of homeless refugees who keep children in cages separate from their mothers and fathers; all of them show that the position of the claimant and the accused in the issue of human rights should not be changed and that the real violators of human rights do not have the necessary moral competence to comment on human rights.”

He pointed out, “Iran's unique role in the destruction of ISIS, which only one of its crimes was enslaving Kurdish, Yazidi and Christian women, is enough to show that we are in the position of the claimant and defender of human rights, and the supporters of ISIS are in the position of the accused.”