TEHRAN- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has said that the U.S. is the primary source of weaponry that the Israeli regime uses to murder Palestinian women and children, describing it as playing a major role in ensuring the regime’s survival.

Raisi made the statements while speaking to media in Tehran early Sunday after returning from an extraordinary joint meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The summit took place while Israel maintained its genocide in the beleaguered Gaza Strip despite mounting pressure to put an end to the atrocities.

“I introduced the United States as the main culprit in these crimes that are being committed by Israel in Gaza,” the Iranian president stated at the conference.

Raisi went on to add, “The most important role that the United States plays is both in helping the Zionist regime survive and in arming and supporting it in its massacre of Palestinian women and children.”

“During this trip, I tried to be the voice of the Iranian nation and those people who shout the right of Palestinians in streets,” the Iranian president stated, highlighting the Islamic Republic’s firm stance on the Palestine issue.

“Since the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Iran has had clear-cut views on the right of Palestinian people, while at the same time, considering the Zionist regime as a fake and usurping regime with no identity,” Raisi averred.

He continued that the Islamic Republic views the liberation of the occupied city of Al-Quds and the restoration of the rights of the Palestinian people as the main concern of the Muslim world and a standard by which to measure other nations’ actual attitudes on this matter.

Raisi stated that among his other major objectives for attending the Riyadh summit were outlining Iran’s positions on the Palestine issue and detailing the numerous facets of “Zionists’ crimes against humanity as well as war crimes and genocide” in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Then, he briefly discussed the ten ideas and solutions that Iran had tendered at the summit to help resolve the current Gaza conflict, emphasizing that the only path that would free the holy Al-Quds is to encourage Palestinian resistance.

“In this summit, in contrast to the two-state solution that some parties proposed on the future of Palestine, we offered a totally democratic solution based on having all Palestinians, including Muslims, Christians and Jews, vote through a referendum to determine their fate,” Iran’s president noted.

He stated that time does not “give a usurping and occupying regime legitimacy and the right of ownership” over Palestinian territory, even if it has existed for 75 years.

Following the surprise Operation al-Aqsa Storm carried out by Hamas in the region in reaction to Israel’s increased atrocities against the Palestinian people, the regime launched its war on Gaza on October 7.

Since then, Israel’s genocide in Gaza has claimed the lives of over 11,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

Raisi, MBS, meet for first time following détente

On the sidelines of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League to discuss the conflict in Palestine, Raisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met on Saturday for the first time since their tense relations were repaired as part of a deal struck in Beijing earlier this year. 

Raisi and bin Salman have agreed at the discussion that Saudi Arabia and Iran should ratchet up their bilateral and regional cooperation. 

The two had also pledged to talk in-depth on bilateral interests and regional developments in the future.

The meeting was the highest-profile exchange between Saudi Arabian and Iranian officials since the two regional heavyweights agreed in March to put aside their disputes and restore diplomatic ties.

In an effort to strengthen their economic ties, Iran and Saudi Arabia proceeded to reopen their respective embassies and exchange trade delegations.

Raisi met with other regional leaders on the sidelines of the joint OIC-Arab League summit in Riyadh on Saturday.

Improved relations with ‘friendly Egypt’

During a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the Iranian president stated that Iran wishes to strengthen ties with Egypt.

“Iran sees no obstacle in expansion of relations with the friendly country of Egypt,” said Raisi in the meeting where Sisi also declared that his country is determined to build “realistic relations” with Iran.

El-Sisi, for his part, said that Egypt’s clear political goal is to build genuine ties with Iran.

“We have assigned the related ministers to pursue deep relations between the two countries,” he said.

The president of Egypt continued, “With regard to Palestine, Egypt is a country that has suffered more than others from the consequences of this issue.”

During a meeting on Saturday, Raisi and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad also underlined that Gaza’s future and its fight for freedom from the Zionist regime can only be decided by resistance.

“Resistance is based on deterrence and prevention of aggression by enemies. Hezbollah actions are based on wisdom and prudence, but the Zionist regime has no logic and understands no language but the language of force,” Raisi told Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Saturday.

In another meeting with his Nigerian counterpart Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Saturday, Raisi said that if Islamic nations had banded together and stood up to the Zionist regime early in the Gaza conflict, the regime would not have dared to perpetrate genocide in Palestinian land.

During his Saturday meeting with Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, the President of Mauritania, Raisi said that the normalization of relations between some nations and the Zionist regime gave it more confidence and led to miscalculations on its part, calling the normalization a stab in the back of the Palestinian resistance.

Speaking with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on the Gaza war on Saturday, Raisi stated that the Israeli regime had committed so many crimes against humanity and genocides that it had already been morally denounced before facing trials in international tribunals.

In a meeting on Saturday with Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the chairman of the Sudanese ruling Sovereign Council, President Raisi said that the Zionist regime is to blame for a number of issues worldwide, including those that arise in Africa.