Ayatollah Khamenei’s speech on Friday will be aired live on local and international radio and television channels.
Every year on International Quds Day, millions of Muslims hold rallies worldwide to reaffirm their call for the liberation of Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and denounce the Tel Aviv regime’s acts of aggression against the Palestinian people.
However, this year, street demonstrations have been canceled in Iran due to the coronavirus pandemic and replaced by online events.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said last week that the country will hold Quds Day events in compliance with protocols set to combat the COVID-19 outbreak.
He said Quds Day will take place without its usual annual rallies and will instead be held within the perimeters of Friday prayers, which coincide with Quds Day.
The late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, designated the last Friday of the holy fasting month of Ramadan as Quds Day to mark solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
The event, which is marked worldwide, is viewed as an opportunity for all freedom-seeking nations of the world to express their outrage at the Israeli regime for its decades-long occupation of Palestinian territories.
This year’s Quds Day is highly significant amid pro-Israel policies adopted by President Donald Trump’s administration.
In December 2017, Trump officially declared the disputed city of Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel's capital, despite warnings from around the world that the measure risks triggering a fresh wave of violence in the Middle East.
In January, Trump alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also unveiled the so-called deal of the century without the presence of Palestinians.
The scheme calls for the creation of a Palestinian state with limited control over its own security and borders. It also bars Palestinian refugees from returning to their homeland, enshrines Jerusalem al-Quds as “Israel’s undivided capital” and allows the regime to annex settlements and the Jordan Valley.
Resistance front leaders to deliver speech to mark Quds Day
The Quds Day Commemoration Committee in cooperation with the Islamic Radios and Televisions Union (IRTVU) is scheduled to hold a virtual speech ceremony for the leaders of the Palestinian resistance front and various personalities on Wednesday.
The speakers are as follows:
- Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, secretary general of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah
- Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Hamas resistance movement
- Abdul-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi, leader of Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement
- Ziyad al-Nakhalah, leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement
- Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, Bahrain's most prominent Shia cleric
- Sheikh Qais al-Khazali, leader of Iraq's Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq movement
- Atallah Hanna, the archbishop of Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem al-Quds
- Sheikh Dr. Abdul-Latif al-Hamim, head of the Sunni Endowment of Iraq
The speech ceremony is to commence at 17:00 local time in the cities of Jerusalem al-Quds, Baghdad, Sana’a and Beirut. It starts at 18:30 local time in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
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