TEHRAN - In a speech at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit in Istanbul on Friday, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran proposed a six-point formula to help Palestinians and counter the Zionist regime of Israel and the U.S. for their joint moves and crimes against the Palestinians.

The summit took place after the U.S. relocated its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds on Monday (May 14) and Israeli snipers shot dead 62 Palestinians and wounded 2000 as they were peacefully protesting the relocation. 

The U.S. move in relocating embassy happened a day before the anniversary of the forcible Israeli eviction of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland in 1948 known as Nakba Day, meaning Day of Catastrophe. 

“In order to assist the Palestinian nation and counter the destructive decision by Trump, we call on Muslim governments and freedom-seeking nations in the world to revise their political, economic and commercial ties with the U.S. administration, and also cut all their relations with the occupying Zionist regime and boycott the products and companies of the Zionists,” Rouhani suggested.

Following is an excerpt of Rouhani’s speech published by the presidential website:

Rouhani says: “The Zionist regime is falsely introducing its own apartheid and ethnocentric system as democracy, calling its religious extremism secularism.”

Today, we are mourning the last act of the 70-year-old genocide against the innocent in Palestine. The criminal Zionists have challenged the global community before the tearful eyes of the world by trampling human dignity and belittling all values. While hundreds of thousands of innocent people are deprived of the most basic human rights, the Zionist regime is falsely introducing its own apartheid and ethnocentric system as democracy, calling its religious extremism secularism; what is more unfortunate is that some Western countries are justifying the invasions of the occupiers.

In these conditions, the government of the United States moved its embassy to Bayt al-Maqdis. This arbitrary action which is contrary to international regulations gave the Zionist regime the go-ahead to commit another brutal killing. The White House has shown that it does not hesitate to destroy foundations and rules of international order, and goes to war against the right with force. Just days before the U.S. embassy was transferred to Bayt al-Maqdis, the President of the United States delivered another blow to international security and credibility of the international community and withdrew from a multilateral nuclear agreement that had been approved by the UN Security Council. The move, in pursuit of a unilateral withdrawal from some of the other important international agreements, has shown that the new U.S. government is a dangerous threat to the global legal system and world peace and security.

But on the other hand, the popular resistance in Black Monday showed that the new and young Palestinian generation is aware of its rights0; …. that it is possible to reveal the violent face of the usurper and show the moments of perseverance of believers at the early Islam to the world. Palestine has shown that it deserves peace and full respect for its legitimate rights.
 
Today, the resistance front is not limited to Palestinian men and women, but rather it includes a growing number of freedom-seekers around the world whose conscience has become enraged by this tyranny and crime.

Now it is time to ask ourselves how we can prevent the Zionist enemy from assailing the dignity of the Islamic Ummah? If, instead of boycotting the only victorious group against the occupying government, everybody would echo the message of resistance; if Zionists saw a powerful region before themselves instead of being certain that some would remain silent and some would make despicable whispers, would they be bold enough to commit such savagery?

If the Zionist Regime is surrounded by developed, democrat countries, facing with a united Ummah, it will never be able to continue its crimes in such a relief.

In this regard, the following suggestions and initiatives are proposed:

1. Request from the United Nations to hold a special General Assembly to discuss the illegal decision of the U.S. administration and the recent crimes of the Zionist Regime against the people of Palestine in Gaza must be proposed and followed.

2. Formation of an expert group consisting of legal, political and economic experts of member countries to closely discuss and propose solutions to confront the recent illegal decision of the U.S. administration at international, regional and national levels.

Rouhani proposes including the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan as International Quds Day in the official calendars of all Islamic countries.

3. Taking political, economic and commercial measures against the government of the United States and the Zionist Regime. In order to assist the Palestinian nation and counter the destructive decision by Trump, we call on Muslim governments and freedom-seeking nations in the world to revise their political, economic and commercial ties with the U.S. administration, and also cut all their relations with the occupying Zionist regime and boycott the products and companies of the Zionists.

4. Proposing suitable solutions to take collective measures in offering humanitarian assistance to the people of Palestine.

5. The nuclear arsenal of the Zionist Regime is a serious threat to international peace and security, especially in western Asia. Eliminating nuclear weapons from this region, which has been repeatedly proposed by Iran, must be a top priority in the agenda of Islamic countries.

6. Announcing the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan as International Quds Day in the official calendars of all Islamic countries as the day of supporting the people of Palestine by Muslims and all free people around the world, and protesting the crimes of Israel and its supporters. This is the legacy of Imam Khomeini (RA), who introduced mobility of the Islamic Ummah against Zionists as the most effective way.

We can unite in action and cooperate in building a stronger and more stable region away from futile disputes of attrition to pave the way for ending the occupation and turn the vast region of the Middle East and Western Asia once more into the place where Abrahamic religions coexist.

In this honourable way, the goal of which is to protect human dignity, we will undoubtedly have divine help, which is a definite divine promise: "If you support Allah, He will support you and plant firmly your feet" (Holy Quran).