Iranian President-Elect Says Accusations of Antisemitism for Support of Palestine Absurd
10:06 13.07.2024 (Updated: 13:48 15.07.2024)
© AP Photo / Vahid SalemiIran's President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian speaks in a meeting a day after the presidential election, at the shrine of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, just outside Tehran
![Iran's President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian speaks in a meeting a day after the presidential election, at the shrine of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, just outside Tehran Iran's President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian speaks in a meeting a day after the presidential election, at the shrine of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, just outside Tehran - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 13.07.2024](https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.africa/img/07e8/07/0d/1067485002_0:0:3072:1728_1920x0_80_0_0_8d6cdee7bd7c8a52fc91062bc72966c0.jpg)
© AP Photo / Vahid Salemi
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TEHRAN (Sputnik) - Iranian President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian, addressing Western youth, called accusations against the Islamic Republic of antisemitism due to Tehran's support for Palestine absurd.
Moreover, Pezeshkian vowed to call on Arab countries to cooperate and use all political leverages to achieve a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
"Today, it seems that many young people in Western countries have recognized the validity of our decades-long stance on the Israeli regime. I would like to take this opportunity to tell this brave generation that we regard the allegations of antisemitism against Iran for its principled stance on the Palestinian issue as not only patently false but also as an insult to our culture, beliefs, and core values. Rest assured that these accusations are as absurd as the unjust claims of antisemitism directed at you while you protest on university campuses to defend the Palestinians' right to life," Pezeshkian said in an article entitled 'My message to the new world' published in the Tehran Times newspaper on Friday.
The new president underlined that, as a first measure, his administration will urge neighboring Arab countries "to collaborate and utilize all political and diplomatic leverages to prioritize achieving a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, aiming to stop the massacre and prevent the broadening of the conflict."
On July 6, Iranian election headquarters spokesman Mohsen Eslami said reformist Pezeshkian won the second round of the snap presidential election in Iran. Pezeshkian gained 16,384,403 votes. His rival, former nuclear negotiator conservative Saeed Jalili, got 13,538,179 votes. Overall, 30,573,931 ballots were counted. The voter turnout was 49.8%.
The election was called after President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash in Iran's mountainous north in May.
On October 7, 2023, the Palestinian movement Hamas launched a large-scale rocket attack against Israel and breached the border, attacking both civilian neighborhoods and military bases. Nearly 1,200 people in Israel were killed, and some 240 were others abducted during the attack. Israel launched retaliatory strikes, ordered a complete blockade of Gaza, and started a ground incursion into the Palestinian enclave with the declared goal of eliminating Hamas fighters and rescuing the hostages.
The death toll in the Gaza Strip has reached 38,345 since last October, while a further 88,200 have been injured, according to the Palestinian enclave's health ministry's estimates.