TEHRAN (MNA) -- Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami has written a letter to world leaders and other international figures expressing his deep concern over the intensifying crisis in the Middle East, the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported on Tuesday.

The missive mainly puts emphasis on the need to defend the human rights of the Lebanese and Palestinian nations.

“The massacre of innocent people, the bombardment of residential areas, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, the blocking of medical assistance… by Israel in Lebanon are overt examples of new humanitarian catastrophes and threats to sustainable world peace,” part of the letter read.

Khatami has called on international institutions, peace-seeking figures, intellectuals, nations, and government leaders to work together to bring a halt to the ongoing war and the suffering of regional nations.

The legitimate right of the Lebanese people to resistance, progress, and life should be defended, added the letter which is addressed to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Iraqi religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Lebanon’s leading Shia leader Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadhlallah, Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura, former South African president Nelson Mandela, Malaysia's former prime minister Mahathir Mohamed, Grand Lebanese Mufti Muhammad Rashid Kabbani, Al-Azhar University Dean Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, Egyptian journalist Muhamed Hassanein Heikal, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Pope Benedict XVI, American political analyst Noam Chomsky, German philosopher Jurgen Habermas, and several other religious and political leaders.