TEHRAN President Seyed Mohammad Khatami here on Friday hailed Palestinians' 50 years of struggle against Zionist aggressors, emphasizing formation of an independent Palestinian state with Bait-ul-Moqaddas as its capital. He described the Zionist regime as a serious threat to the Islamic world and reiterated Iran's support for the Palestinian people and the liberation of holy Qods. Fifty years on, Israel is today still the biggest threat to security and stability in the region and the Islamic world, President Khatami said.

Iran will continue to support the Palestinian people and the cause for the liberation of Bait-ul-Moqaddas, the president said in an address broadcast on Iranian radio and television. Earlier Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said that the Zionists who opened fire on demonstrating Palestinians Wednesday are true descendents of their predecessors who massacred the innocent people in Dayr-Yassin some years ago. The Iranian foreign minister who was speaking on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Zionist regime said bloody incidents in the occupied Palestine over the past 50 years are proof that compromise with the Zionist regime will bring only humiliation to the Palestinian. He called on the member states of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to abide by the previous OIC resolution in Tehran in connection with the Zionist regime.

It is time that Islamic countries adopted a firm and strong policy against Israel's expansionist aims and undertake their responsibilities in supporting the resistance, Kharrazi said on Radio-Tehran. He called on Islamic nations to step up pressure against Zionist regime's expansionist policies.