Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday, February 9 that his country has requested an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers to discuss the statement made by US President Donald Trump about displacing Palestinians from Gaza.
Araghchi called his Gambian counterpart Mamadou Tangara on Saturday. Gambia holds the current presidency of the OIC, a group made of 57 countries from across the world.
He underlined that it was necessary to devise a “united and firm stand” of the international community against Trump’s “dangerous plot” which, if realized, would amount to “ethnic cleansing.”
Last week Trump declared that his country will take over the Gaza strip and “do a job with it too,” during a press conference with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The PM visited the US last week despite an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 15-month war on Gaza. He was Trump’s first head of state visitor since being sworn in on January 20.
Hamas delegation meets Iranian officials
Araghchi spoke with a delegation of senior Hamas officials visiting Iran for the 46th anniversary of the Iranian revolution of 1979. The delegation was led by Mohammad Ismail Darwish, chairman of its leadership council.
“The US president’s plan to forcibly transfer the Palestinian people outside of Gaza is in line with a colonial plot to eliminate Palestine, and is against all regulations of international law and treaties, and most importantly, it is against humanitarian principles,” Araghchi said on Sunday.
He underlined the steadfastness of the Palestinian resistance and called the ceasefire a sign of victory. He stated that Israel was forced to negotiate with Hamas after failing to achieve any of the objectives of its war on Gaza including the destruction of Hamas itself.
Hamas’ delegation is visiting Iran weeks after the ceasefire deal was reached with Israel. Israel launched a genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023 which ended with the recent ceasefire deal, though Israeli officials have threatened to end the agreement to return to war. The 15-month-long offensive completely devastated Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, killing well over 47,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
Darwish echoed the same stance, warning that attempts to forcibly displace the people of the besieged Palestinian territory would fail due to their resilience. He emphasized that Palestinians have endured over 15 months of Israeli genocide and crimes against humanity.
Khamenei rejects Trump’s hubris and reaffirms Iran’s stance
The Hamas delegation also met Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei on Friday. Khamenei congratulated Hamas’ leadership for defeating the Zionist regime by underlining that Israel’s defeat in Gaza was actually a defeat for the US, Reuters reported.
Khamenei rejected Trump’s statement by reiterating the Iranian position which sees all the territories from “the river to the sea,” as belonging to the Palestinians.
Iran does not recognize Israel. It officially considers all the land between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean sea, on which the Israeli state was declared in 1948, as “occupied Palestinian territory.”
Khamenei also took a dig at Trump’s attempts to “redraw the map of the world” saying his claims will remain on the paper on which they are drawn.
Apart from threatening to take Gaza, by force if necessary, Trump has also renamed the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” threatened to occupy Panama, and has called Canada the 51st state of the US.
