IRAN CONFERENCE ON PALESTINIANS, AN (OTHER) EXERCISE IN FUTILITY
By an IPS Correspondent in Tehran
Tehran 25 Apr. (IPS) Iran opened a two-days Conference Tuesday to support the
new Palestinian Infifada and co-ordinate efforts by Arab and Muslim nations and
organisations opposed to the Peace Process and at eliminating the Jewish State,
but failed to propose any concrete solution to the plight of the Palestinians.
"So far, nothing new emerged from the first day of the Conference if not
same old rhetoric, including that of Ayatollah Ali Khamenehe'i, the leader of
the Islamic Republic, who opened the meeting", analysts present at the
Conference observed.
In his opening address, Mr. Khamenehe'i proposed a two-points "guideline" to answer Israeli "aggressions" against the Palestinians: "containing the usurper regime within its borders, blocking its economic and political breathing space and serving its linkages with its surrounding environment as well as continuation of resistance and struggle of Palestinian people within their own homeland while offering them all the needed assistance".
"Time has also shown that rosy promises given to Palestinian negotiators were nothing but mere illusions", the Iranian leader stressed, echoed by Mr. Salim al Zanoun, the Speaker of the Palestinian National Council (parliament) who described Israeli-Palestinian the Peace Process to a joke and the Oslo Agreements of 1993 an "illusion, a palace on moving sands".
"Not only the Peace Process has reached an impasse, but Israel has destroyed everything we had constructed in the past seven years", observed Mr. Za’noun, who represents the Palestinian Authority Chairman Yaser Afaraft.
Using articles from revisionist authors, including the French philosopher Roger Garaudy, a former Communist turned Muslim, Mr. Khamenehe'I told the 300 audience that there are documents showing collaboration of the Zionists with the Nazi Germany.
He said that not only there are documents showing close collaboration of the Zionists with the Nazi Germany, but also the numbers relating to the Jewish Holocaust were "fabricated to solicit sympathy of the world public opinion, lay the ground for the occupation of Palestine and to justify the atrocities of the Zionists".
"There is even evidence on hand that a large number of non-Jewish
hooligans and thugs of Eastern Europe were forced to migrate to Palestine as
Jews. The purpose was to install in the heart of the Islamic world an
anti-Islamic state under the guise of supporting the victims of racism and to
create a rift between the East and the West of the Islamic world after 1400
years of unity between those two parts."
[The U.S. State Department immediately condemned Mr. Khameneh’is remarks on the Holocaust and the creation of Israel as "outrageous and deplorable".
U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said: "The outrageous and deplorable statements such as those ... do nothing to allay our concerns about Iran and its support for terrorism and opposition to Middle East peace."
Iran invited advocates of armed conflict with Israel to the conference in Tehran, including Hizbollah from Lebanon and the Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Iranian support for such groups is a recurrent U.S. complaint against Tehran and the main reason for Iran's inclusion on a U.S. list of "state sponsors of terrorism."
The State Department will release its annual report on international "terrorism" next week, with no change expected in the status of Iran.
Reeker said: "What we saw in Tehran and the pictures we've seen is no garden party. Next week we'll release our annual "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report, which I'm sure will highlight a number of the organisations that have been there."
But Mr. Khamenehe’i did not mentioned the many wars between Arab and Muslim states against each other, the last one being the devastating Iran-Iraq conflict that killed and wounded more than three millions Muslims on both sides.
"The so-called peace process and the Oslo scheme placed the Palestinians in a situation that made them realise there is no other way but an all-out popular uprising", Mr. Khamenehe'i said, adding: "I assure you that the Israeli regime is decayed from within and the present generation is by no means prepared to make any sacrifice for its preservation. With the grace of Allah, Arab and Muslim nations are today stronger than any other time in the past 50 years."
However, the harshest words against Israel came not from him, but the embattled President Mohammad Khatami, who described the Jewish State" as a "parasite" in the heart of the Muslim word and founded on the "fallacious concepts of superiority, transgressing human rights".
"These concepts have not only given rise to a state that recognises no bounds in the practice of violence and brutality against other people but also totally trespassed all human rights" Hojjatoleslam Khatami said.
He strongly condemned Israel’s "contempt" for Palestinian human rights while the United Nations Commission on Human rights faulted his government few days earlier for gross violations of such rights as well as crushing discriminations against women, dissidents and minorities in Iran.
The Iranian President Khatami reiterated earlier proposals for the return of all Palestinian refugees to their homeland and holding a multi-faith referendum on the future of Palestine, and independent Palestinian State with the holy al-Qods (Jerusalem) as its capital.
He also proposed the formation of a U.N. war crimes tribunal in Palestine and called on Muslim nations to impose all-out sanctions against Israel and clear the way for throwing weight behind the Intifada.
Explaining Mr. Khatami’s hard words, Iranian analysts said supporting the legitimate cause of the Palestinians is "the only arena" where the reformists could steal the show from their conservative foes.
"Considering important and basic divergences among Arab and Palestinian groups concerning the Peace Process, the Conference is likely to bring Iranian feuding factions in the leadership closer to each other, even for few days, instead of harmonising the activities among the Palestinians", one political observer at the conference told Iran Press Service.
The conference is expected to provide support for the Palestinian Intifada, draw up strategy for the Palestinian uprising against occupation of the Palestinian territories and make decision on how to take practical steps to help the Palestinian struggle succeed in restoring the rights of the Palestinians.
The "star" of the day was Sheikh Hasan nasrollah, the leader of Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah who, amidst repeated applauses promised Israel that he would continue "jihadi" (holy) operations in support of the Palestinian uprising
"I’m a man who stands by his words. Therefore, wait for me were you expect but especially where you don’t", he warned.
Besides Hojjatoleslam Nasrollah, Mr. Khaled Mash’al of the Islamic HAMAS movement and Mr. Ramezan Abdollah of the Iranian-created and financed Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, Ahmad Jibril also attended the meeting. ENDS INTIFADA TEHRAN CONF 25401