TEHRAN — Foreign Minister Zarif has suggested that the solution to the Palestinian issue is “resistance and referendum”.

“In my opinion, this is an opportunity for the world of Islam to realize that the solution for the issue of Palestine turns around the two pivots of democracy and resistance,” Zarif said in an interview with the khamenei.ir published on Monday.

“The unity inside Palestine on the basis of resistance can turn out to be a very auspicious phenomenon for foiling Zionist policies,” he said.

The chief diplomat also said democracy “is a very important player as well”, noting the self-proclaimed defenders of democracy have no reason to oppose referendum in the occupied lands.

“Those whose cry of democracy has deafened the world and who refer to the Zionist regime as the only democracy in the region should be prepared to embrace the real democracy.”

An excerpt of Zarif’s interview are presented below:

Unfortunately, in the course of the past years – particularly in recent years – not only has the Arab world adopted a passive outlook towards the Zionist regime and towards the U.S., but they have also allied themselves with the Zionists against the Islamic country of Palestine. This course of action has pushed them into a delicate situation. That is why the Americans have reached the conclusion that they can unveil their plan. However, until a few years ago, the Americans were not in the same position; they did not even think of turning the issue of Palestine into a real estate business and sacrificing all the desires, dreams and essential rights of the people of Palestine for the sake of their own construction projects.

As a matter of fact, this plan would turn Palestine into something like the Bantustans of the apartheid era. In other words, there would be designated regions which would come out in the center of occupied Palestine in order to control its inhabitants. In that deal, everything is in the control of the Zionist regime as the clauses specified in the “Deal of the Century” are beyond the ones suggested in Oslo and Madrid accords. In its current shape, the plan would metamorphose Palestine into small segments situated among the lands encircled by Zionist territories. It would even grant to the Zionists all the lands disputed since 1967.

“[Democracy] means that all those who live in Palestine, who are the real owners of Palestine, but who have been displaced around the world should be able to determine and make decisions for their own future,” says the foreign minister.
The stance adopted by some of the heads of Arab countries – who have turned into the leaders of the Arab world today due to the problems that big Arab countries are faced with – is different from that of the Arab people, but the important thing that has happened is that the dependent Arab regimes have endeavored in recent years to introduce the Islamic Republic as a danger – a false one – to their people.

In my opinion, this is an opportunity for the world of Islam to realize that the solution for the issue of Palestine turns around the two pivots of democracy and resistance. The goal of the Resistance is clear and the Palestinians are resisting as well, but today all Palestinians should express their unanimous opposition to the Deal of the Century. The unity inside Palestine on the basis of resistance can turn out to be a very auspicious phenomenon for foiling Zionist policies.

Democracy is a very important player as well. Those whose cry of democracy has deafened the world and who refer to the Zionist regime as the only democracy in the region should be prepared to embrace the real democracy. What does real democracy mean? It means that all those who live in Palestine, who are the real owners of Palestine, but who have been displaced around the world should be able to determine and make decisions for their own future. Why are the advocates of democracy intimidated by this proposal?

[Or by] The plan that the Supreme Leader of the Revolution has introduced in recent years as the Islamic Republic’s proposal for the question of Palestine—which is naturally a logical one? When a similar plan was implemented in South Africa and when apartheid was eliminated as a result of it, did it lead to the massacre of the white people? Why do they wish to falsely promote the notion that this plan will lead to the massacre of the Jews? [The Supreme Leader] has reiterated many times that we have nothing against the Jewish people and that the Jews who have been living in Palestine have the right to reside there, but that they cannot determine the fate of others. It is each and every one of the Palestinians who should determine their own fate.

In South Africa, all Africans – including the blacks, the whites and the people of color – were once divided into different groups and they were deprived of the human right to live together, but they decided to put an end to such a system. Almost 30 years have passed from [the days of] that system, but we have not been a witness to any war or massacre in South Africa.

As for Palestine, instead of giving in to the humiliation and the increasing and infinite pressures exerted by the U.S. and the Zionist regime, there are two solutions that should be pursued simultaneously, not separately from one another. One is resistance and another is democracy and popular vote. If they put these two solutions in practice, the question of Palestine will be resolved. Last year, we registered with the United Nations the Supreme Leader’s proposal in the United Nations as an officially recognized proposal, so that the world would become familiar with it, as is already familiar with it to some extent.

When the Deal of the Century was just about to be unveiled, we promoted the plan proposed by the Supreme Leader of the Revolution so that the world would know that the only solution for Palestine is not merely to violate the rights of the Palestinians and to pursue a settlement project, that rather the only solution is to assert the rights of the Palestinians.

Notice that the final decision rests with the people of Palestine. It is they who should make this decision. In our opinion, one of the mistakes made in the past 30 years was that they [Some Palestinian organizations] thought they would be able to revive the rights of the Palestinians through cooperating with the occupiers. However, today all Palestinian parties have realized that this is not the case. Therefore, they should begin to think about an alternative for the Oslo accord and subsequently, the Deal of the Century which is the continuation of the U.S. interventionist policies regarding the question of occupied Palestine. Therefore, the Palestinians should accept that this is not just another intervention and that the U.S. is one side of the problem and the dispute. Therefore, they should work on a plan which can provide them with a solution.

We have always stressed that it is the Palestinians who have the right to choose and the Islamic Republic will accept whichever path the people of Palestine opt for. In other words, we accept that the Palestinians should make the final decision and their final decision should be respected by everyone.

The Islamic Republic has always stood by Palestinians’ and other Muslim nations’ side in their resistance, including Lebanon, Syria and other Arab countries whose lands have been occupied by the Zionist regime. Martyr Soleimani was, in fact, a symbol of the Iranian nation’s cooperation with and assistance to the nations of the region. Martyr Soleimani was an individual who mounted resistance not only in the face of the Zionist regime but also in the face of extremism and terrorism. He stood by the side of the resistant people of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. It could be said that Martyr Soleimani was not only a hero of Resistance but also a hero in the fight against terrorism and advocating peace.

Surely, his martyrdom will bring about many natural outcomes, some of which we witnessed in Iraq. After long periods of struggle and contention on the streets of Iraq, after the martyrdom of the commander, all the people of that country became united in order to bury his pure body and later on, they demanded that the U.S. be expelled from Iraq.

With such a cowardly and foolish act, Trump put an end to the U.S. presence in the region. In other countries including India too, the people held demonstrations against the U.S. in hundreds of cities. This indicates that with that action, the U.S. dealt itself a fundamental blow and it strengthened the camp of Resistance and the camp of anti-domination and anti-arrogance in the region and in the whole world.

MH/PA