Iran has hailed the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ recent invocation of Article 99 of the UN Charter as a means of pushing for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which has come under an unrelenting and genocidal Israeli war.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian described the move as a “rare and worthwhile” measure aimed at the establishment of peace and security on the global stage. He made the remarks during a phone call with the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas’ Politburo Chief, Ismail Haniyeh on Friday.
In a move not taken in decades, the UN chief invoked the article on Wednesday to notify the UN Security Council about the threat that is posed to international peace and security by the Israeli war.
The occupying regime launched the war on October 7 in response to an operation staged by Gaza’s resistance movements. Israel has killed more than 17,400 people, most of them women and children, and injured over 46,480 others in its relentless aerial and ground attacks on Gaza since.
Simultaneously, the regime has ramped up its aggression across the occupied West Bank and has carried out sporadic attacks against Lebanon, which has sparked a firefight with the Lebanese resistance movement of Hezbollah.
Amir-Abdollahian informed Haniyeh about the latest diplomatic maneuvers that have been taken by the Islamic Republic and other Muslim countries on the international level in support of the Palestinian people, condemnation of the Zionist regime’s war crimes, and cessation of its massacre of Palestinians across Gaza and the West Bank.
The top diplomat, meanwhile, told the Hamas official that the crisis in the coastal sliver had formed a central plank of earlier discussions between President Ebrahim Raeisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. “Important talks have taken place between the Iranian and Russian presidents concerning the issue of Palestine,” Amir-Abdollahian said.
During a one-day trip to Moscow, the Iranian chief executive called for an immediate stop to the Israeli “genocide and crimes against humanity” in the besieged Gaza Strip, and drew attention to the United States and other Western countries’ support for the Israeli atrocities.
Haniyeh: Resistance to last until cessation of Israeli aggression, occupation
For his part, the Hamas official expressed gratitude towards the Islamic Republic over the country’s well-known and consistent position of support for the Palestinian nation and Tehran’s extensive diplomatic endeavors aimed at ending the Zionist regime’s atrocities.
“By God’s grace, resistance is going to last until the cessation of Zionists’ crimes and complete elimination of Palestine’s occupation,” he asserted.
