Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the occasion of Nakba Day

According to Ashura News, citing Mehr News Agency, on the anniversary of the establishment of the Zionist regime, which Palestinians and the people of the region have rightly called Nakba Day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, emphasizing the fundamental right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, reminds the international community of its legal and moral responsibility to stop the genocide in Gaza and to try and punish the Zionist criminals.

Seventy-seven years ago, on May 15, 1948 (May 25, 1327), the greatest human tragedy in contemporary history began in the historic land of Palestine with the announcement of the establishment of an illegitimate regime; a catastrophe that led to the displacement of more than 750,000 Palestinians that year and the destruction of more than 530 cities and villages, and marked the beginning of a process of colonial annihilation of the Palestinian people that continues to this day.

In these eight decades, the most severe violations of human rights and humanitarian law have been committed against the Palestinian people, and the Zionist regime, with the full support of the United States, the United Kingdom and some other European countries, and with complete immunity, has committed the most heinous international crimes in the occupied territories.

In the past two years, the colonial and criminal plan of the Zionist regime to destroy Palestine as a nation and historical identity has entered a new stage, during which the occupying regime has used the most deadly weapons to mercilessly massacre Palestinians in Gaza, while simultaneously depriving them of water, food and medicine. The horrific and inhumane actions of the Zionist regime undoubtedly have all the elements of the most serious international crimes, especially war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of genocide as defined by the "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide", and on this basis, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court have taken action to force the Zionist regime to stop the crimes. However, due to American obstruction and overt and covert pressure on the judges of both courts, the process of hearing the cases in this regard has been clearly disrupted.

The genocide and brutal killing of innocent Palestinian women and children is a manifestation of the colonial mentality and the horrifying sense of superiority of the occupiers, which has been actualized with the armed and political support of the regime's supporters.

The Zionist regime's insistence on continuing the genocide in Gaza and the daily killing and torture of Palestinians in the West Bank is the result of the regime's leaders' certainty that there is no will at the level of the United Nations, its Security Council, and other competent international institutions to hold it accountable, and this is itself the product of America's all-out support for this regime, which has placed America in the position of Israel's definitive partner and accomplice in the genocide and war crimes committed against the Palestinians.

Nakba Day is a reminder of an old wound in the body of humanity that has tormented the human conscience for eight decades and has been the source of the longest human tragedy in the contemporary world.

Today, more than ever, the demand for an end to the occupation and liberation of Palestine and an end to the crimes of the Zionist regime has received a global echo, and the abominable nature of Israel’s apartheid and colonialism has become clear to the public opinion of the world.

The moral and legal duty of the international community is to take action to stop the genocide, end the occupation, and prosecute and punish the Zionist criminals. All states are obligated, in accordance with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, human rights treaties, and the norms of international humanitarian law, including the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols, to assist the Palestinian people in their liberation from occupation and their right to self-determination. But more urgent than that is the commitment to take urgent action to prevent the continuation of genocide and the extermination of the Palestinian people, which is a universal responsibility according to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, and all countries are duty-bound and responsible in this regard.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, along with other free peoples of the world, emphasizing the legitimate and inviolable right of the occupied Palestinian people to resist occupation and aggression with all legitimate means at their disposal, while strongly condemning the crimes of the occupiers and rejecting any plan that entails displacing the people of Gaza and the West Bank from their homeland, believes that the solution to the eighty-year-old occupation of Palestine will only be possible by ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state through a referendum of the original inhabitants of the Palestinian land, and implementing the right of return of the refugees to their homeland.