In Comprehensive Report, US Lawmaker Urges Allies, EU To Designate IRGC

The state-sponsored event is held guised as defending the rights of Palestinians but serves as a phenomenon to perpetuate antisemitic and anti-Israel propaganda among the Muslim world under the auspices of a collective cause propagated by Iran's dictator.

The day, which takes its name from the Arabic-language name for Jerusalem, is often described as the official demonstration in support of the Revolutionary Guards Quds (Qods) Force – an IRGC division primarily responsible for extraterritorial military and clandestine operations – because it seeks to justify the Islamic Republic’s destabilizing activities across the region.

Directed against Israel’s existence, Al-Quds Day was proclaimed by the founder of the Islamic Republic Ruhollah Khomeini on 7 August 1979. He called on Muslims worldwide to unite in solidarity against Israel and in support of the Palestinians, saying the "liberation" of Jerusalem was a “religious duty to all Muslims”.

Among the most salient programs during the day is burning the flags of Israel, the United States, the UK and other countries that the Islamic Republic deems as enemies, no matter their role in the conflicts between Israel and Palestinians. Effigies of Western officials in chains are also among the sights of the regime’s carnival of hate.

Almost all the regime’s insiders are socially obligated to attend the event as a renewal of allegiances with one of the main foreign policy issues of the Islamic Republic, the destruction of the State of Israel.

The president and his cabinet ministers as well as members of the parliament, prominent politicians and their entourage and so many other officials from the inner circles of the regime are usually seen during the rallies.

Such state-sponsored events are usually shunned by the general public and the regime ends up transporting paramilitary Basij forces and its supporters from small towns to provincial capitals to form demonstrations with large crowds for the façade of mass support.

As he was walking along his large retinue while people were chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" around him, President Ebrahim Raisi spoke to reporters, emphasizing that “the collapse of the Zionist regime is very close”. Repeated relentlessly with a sense of spiritual foreboding by the Supreme Leader and his cronies, Israel is ironically about to celebrate its 75th year. According to Khamenei’s prophecy, Israel has 17 years left until its downfall.

Raisi reiterated that the liberation of Quds (Jerusalem) is imminent; “Closer than you can imagine,” adding that “the normalization of relations with regional states [such as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain] has not brought and will not bring security for the Zionist regime.”

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf delivered the final speech of the event at Enqelab (revolution) Square after droves of people were guided to the final venue from 10 routes designated for the rallies throughout the capital Tehran. As it was expected, he emphasized that resistance is the only way to achieve success and ultimate victory over Israel.

“Quds Day is a very significant and influential day for the Muslim Ummah and Islamic countries,” he said. “Quds Day indicates that success and victory could be attained only through resistance”. Ghalibaf also lauded recent Iran-backed Palestinian missile strikes into Israel from Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, saying all Palestinian groups have closed ranks to liberate al-Quds (Jerusalem), which he described as the capital of the Muslim world.

The Islamic Republic is so invested in the idea of resistance that it calls its proxy forces and aligned militia across the region “the axis of resistance,” mainly organized by the IRGC’s Quds force. Its current commander Esmail Qaani was also present in the rallies and photos and banners of his predecessor Qassem Soleimani – killed January 2020 by a US drone attack in Baghdad — abounded throughout the event.

The IRGC’s commander-in-chief Hossein Salami also delivered a speech at the event, claiming that Israel is on the brink of destruction, and that it cannot prevent the arming of Palestinians in the West Bank, referring to the likes of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which openly admit funding from and affiliations to Iran.

“There are operations in the West Bank and Tel Aviv, and the regime that surrounds itself like a barracks and has the strongest and most modern security systems cannot prevent the arming of the West Bank and the operations of the Palestinian forces,” he said.

This year, the Islamic Republic also released a communiqué at the end of the event – dubbed the Quds Day Resolution – threatening states that have restored relations with Israel, a veiled warning against Saudi Arabia and its allies which are bolstering ties with Jerusalem.

The regime in Tehran, which is in the middle of rapprochement with Riyadh, did not directly mention Saudi Arabia in its Quds day statement, and prevented people from chanting slogans against the Al Saud, a prevalent motto in previous years.

As the regime continues to fight a losing battle against the tide of hijab rebellion, a trigger for months of violent unrest in the country, the day’s final statement reiterated the regime’s rhetoric that the “hijab is one of the necessities of Islam, and not observing it is a religious and political haram and will cause the foundations of families to weaken.”

In an announcement carried by local media, the armed forces of the Islamic Republic said that “countdown for the disintegration of Zionism has begun.”

In official jargon used by the Iranian regime, Israel is called “the Zionist entity” or the “Zionist regime.” In its 44-year history Iran’s clerical rulers have been calling for “eradication” or “destruction of Israel.”

In 2015, Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei announced that Israel would cease to exist in the next 25 years and in 2016, the regime put up a countdown clock in Tehran’s Palestine Square that showed time ticking. This followed the signing of a nuclear agreement between Iran and World powers in July 2015.

Iran’s armed forces said, “Seventy-five years has passed since the occupation of Palestinian lands with a conspiracy by evil Britain and the American mafia regime,” and called for Muslim unity in supporting Palestinians.

Iranian officials have become vociferous in the past few weeks, calling for Palestinians to attack Israel and insisting that Jerusalem “will be soon liberated.” This followed the political rift and protests in Israel over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s quest to overhaul the judicial system.

Palestinian attacks followed both from Gaza and Lebanon, triggering Israeli responses in a series of military tit-for-tat confrontations.

“The countdown has begun for Zionism’s downfall,” the statement said, adding that “with God’s grace soon there will be nothing called the Zionist regime.”

In a significant confidence-building measure, the conclusion of talks in the Yemeni capital Sanaa was followed by an announcement on Friday from the International Committee of the Red Cross that the warring parties had begun an exchange of nearly 900 detainees.

Saudi Arabia, which leads a coalition that has been battling the Iranian-backed Houthis since 2015, is seeking a permanent ceasefire deal to end its military involvement in a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and left millions hungry.

Houthi chief negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam said on Friday the negotiations with envoys from Saudi Arabia and Oman, which is facilitating the talks, had been "serious and positive".

"There was advancement on some issues with the hope of continuing studying outstanding issues at another time," he said in a Twitter post, without elaborating.

The visit by the Saudi delegation, which departed Sanaa on Thursday according to two Yemeni sources, signaled movement to build on an expired UN-brokered truce and followed last month's deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran to restore ties.

Sources have told Reuters that the Saudi-Houthi talks were focused on a ceasefire, full reopening of Houthi-controlled ports and Sanaa airport, payment of public sector wages, rebuilding efforts, and withdrawal of foreign forces from Yemen.

The conflict is widely seen as one of several proxy wars between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the region's Sunni Muslim and Shiite powers.

They have agreed to restore diplomatic ties severed in 2016 as Riyadh moves to manage regional tensions and to focus on economic priorities.

Reporting by Reuters

As Iran and all its allies and proxies in the region marked the Quds Day, a designated day to support Palestinians and condemn Israel, Netanyahu told Israel’s channel 14 in an interview that the issue of Iran’s nuclear weapons depends on him and he will not allow it.

His statement about preventing Iran’s nuclearization “With or Without help from others”, presumably referring to a possible role by the United States, echoed a statement by former Israeli National Security Advisor Yaakov Amidror, who said on Thursday, “We need to prepare for war. It’s possible that we will reach a point where we have to attack Iran even without American assistance.”

Iranian media widely reported Amidror’s statement on Friday, as the Islamic Republic’s various government institutions pushed to get a big turnout during the Quds Day, anti-Israeli marches.

Fars news agency affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard recycled past statements by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, saying that when Iranian officials call for the “eradication of Israel” they do not mean the Jewish people, but the current state of Israel.

Eradicating Israel, Khamenei was quoted as saying means “The Palestinian people, who are the real owners of that land, whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish electing their real government…and expelling thugs such as Netanyahu” who are foreigners.

Khamenei, his loyalists and government-controlled media in Iran have been claiming in recent weeks that end of Israel is near, after Israeli protests against Netanyahu and Palestinian terror and rocket attacks.

It is the latest in a stream of anti-Israel propaganda released by the regime which is at fever pitch in rallying the Muslim world against its archenemy.

“Experience has shown that any compromise plan, including the normalization of ties between the Zionist regime and some Islamic countries, has failed, and the Islamic resistance is the only solution to the Palestinian issue,” reads the statement.

It was likely referring to the internal political division in Israel, with protests against the government's legislative reforms. Iranian proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria have all recently attacked Israel with rockets as tensions simmer during the holy month of Ramadan.

A few years ago, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Israel must be destroyed in 25 years and the government even set up a countdown clock in Tehran. Many Iranians mock the anti-Israel rhetoric and the ticking clock, but the regime is adamant in repeating its threat.

The latest statement was released on the eve of Quds Day, an annual event showing solidarity with Palestine and against the state of Israel. It was proclaimed by the founder of the Islamic Republic Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979. 

In Iran, Quds Day also features demonstrations against other countries that the regime deems as enemies, including the United States, the UK and Saudi Arabia.