Speaking in a live televised speech on Friday on the occasion of the International Quds Day, Ayatollah Khamenei said that today, the “invincible willpower” in Palestine and throughout West Asia has replaced the Zionist “invincible army”. Today, the Zionist criminal army has been forced to turn its offensive array into a defensive one.

Holy Quds is the heart of Palestine, and the entire occupied country of Palestine, from the river to the sea, is a continuation of Quds, Imam Khamenei said, adding that the Palestinian nation is showing every day that it has stood up and will stand up against the oppressor with exemplary courage.

“The Palestinian youth have acted as a defensive shield for Palestine with their self-sacrificing activities and they are harbingers of a different future.”

The usurping Zionist regime is wallowing in a convoluted network of problems in both political and military arenas, his eminence maintained, adding that the former butcher and criminal, who was at the top of that regime, was thrown into the dustbin of history following the epic at Al-Quds Sword.

“Polls show that almost 70% of the Palestinians in the 1948 and 1967 lands and in the surrounding camps encourage the Palestinian leaders to carry out attacks on the Zionist regime. This is an important phenomenon because it signifies the complete preparedness of the Palestinians to confront the usurping regime and it provides the mujahid organizations with the freedom to take military action whenever they deem necessary.”

“The jihadi moves of the people of Palestine in the two northern and southern parts of the 1948 lands, and at the same time, the massive rallies in Jordan and Eastern Quds, the brave defense of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by Palestinian youth, and the military maneuvers in Gaza indicate that all of Palestine has turned into an arena of resistance. At the present time, the people of Palestine are unanimous about continuing this struggle on the path of God.”

“These incidents and what has occurred in Palestine in recent years is a seal of annulment on all schemes for compromise with the Zionist enemy. This is because no scheme or plan about Palestine is implementable in the absence of Palestine or against the consent of its owners, the Palestinians. This means that all former agreements such as the Oslo Accord, the Arabian two-state solution, the Deal of the Century and the recent humiliating attempts for the normalization of relations have been nullified.”

“Even though the Zionist regime is out of breath, it continues to commit crimes and kill innocent people with its weapons. It murders unarmed women, children, the elderly and the youth. It imprisons and tortures them, destroys houses and demolishes farms and property. The liars in Europe and the US who make extravagant claims about human rights and who created a commotion on the issue of Ukraine keep totally silent in the face of all these crimes in Palestine. Not only do they not defend the innocent people, they also help that bloodthirsty wolf.”

“This is an important lesson. Regarding the issues of the world of Islam–at the top of which stands the issue of Palestine–we cannot and must not rely on these racist, hostile powers. Only with the power that comes from resistance, which originates in the teachings of the Qur’an and which arises from the religious rulings of dear Islam can one resolve the issues of the world of Islam and the issue of Palestine, which stands at the top of all Islamic issues.”

“The formation of the Resistance in West Asia has been the most blessed phenomenon in this region in recent decades. It was the magnificence of the Resistance that was able to cleanse the occupied territories of Lebanon of the pollution of the Zionists, pull Iraq out from the clutches of the US, and save Iraq from the maliciousness of the ISIL and assist Syrian defenders in the face of the US schemes. The Resistance fights against international terrorism, helps the resistant people of Yemen in the war that has been imposed on them, wrestles with the Zionist usurpers in Palestine and will bring them to their knees with God’s grace. It also highlights the issue of Quds and Palestine more and more for the people of the world to see on a daily basis.”

Imam Khamenei stressed that the Islamic Republic of Iran advocates and supports the camp of Resistance, condemning the treacherous move to normalize relations [with the Zionist regime]. We condemn the policy of a normalization of relations.

“Some Arab governments have asked the US to accelerate the matter of solving the Palestinian issue. If they mean that before the US leaves the region it should remove any obstacle standing in the way of the Zionist regime, then, first of all, they have behaved treacherously and have brought disgrace to the Arab world. Secondly, they have been naïve since this is a case of the blind leading the blind.”