Iran FM: Big Explosion in Region If Gaza War Continues

By Staff, Agencies

The continuation of the Gaza war will lead to a regional explosion, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian told the Doha Forum on Monday, as he explained that the scope of the conflict had already expanded to include Lebanon and Yemen.

“At any moment there is a possibility of a big explosion in the region, one not controllable by any party,” he said as he spoke through an English language translator in a virtual interview conducted by CNN’s Becky Anderson.

“At least every week, we receive a message from the US telling us that US bases in Syria and Iraq are targeted by some groups,” Amir Abdollahian said. These groups are “defending the Arab and Muslim people of Gaza; that is why they are targeting US bases in Syria and Iraq.”

The “Israeli” entity, which he said is essentially a US regional proxy that cannot be considered a state, cannot defeat Hamas even if it fights them for the next 10 years, Amir Abdollahian said.

“Hamas is ready to fight for years and can produce and procure weapons,” he explained.

The Iranian foreign minister said the October 7 Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was the direct result of the creation of the apartheid “Israeli” entity 75 years ago, as he explained that the territory within its borders was considered to be occupied Palestinian land.

“We do not recognize ‘Israel’ as a government. It has just been an occupying power for 75 years,” Amir Abdollahian said as he called on the US to “abandon their unconditional and unwavering support for ‘Israel’”.

Hamas is “a liberation movement against” that occupation, he said. Iran supports “resistance groups” such as Hamas working to free Palestinian territory, he explained, adding that this also included Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.

He accused the “Israeli” entity of using disproportionate force in Gaza, pointing to the Hamas figures of 18,000 Palestinian fatalities as a result of the war.

In discussing the “Israeli”-Palestinian conflict in general, Amir Abdollahian said that the best resolution would be to put a referendum before the Jewish, Christian and Muslim residents of that territory asking what they believed the resolution should be.

But he clarified that Iran does not believe in a “two-state” resolution to the “Israeli”-Palestinian conflict – and neither, he said, does the “Israeli” entity. Tehran wants to see a Palestinian state on all that territory and “Israeli” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants it all to be part of “Israel”, he said.

“The only thing we have in common is that neither of us believes in a ‘two-state’ solution.”

Amir Abdollahian accused the entity of wanting to forcibly displace Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip to Egypt and those in the occupied West Bank to Jordan.