Iran's foreign ministry on Wednesday rejected US State Department accusations that Tehran is supporting international terrorism, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.
Tehran "will continue its moral and humanitarian support of the Islamic resistance in Lebanon and of the Palestinians, and the agreement of the United States is not needed for that," ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said.
"Iran and Islamic nations agree on the need to support the legitimate struggle of those fighting for their rights, and the Islamic world hopes that all countries will support the struggle for liberation," he said.
"On the other hand, Iran and the Islamic world condemn US support for the Israeli state's terrorism," he said, cited by IRNA.
"The Islamic Republic does not need the US approval for its humanitarian and spiritual aids for the oppressed Palestinians and the Lebanese Resistance Movement," Assefi pointed out.
The United States on Tuesday slammed comments by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Zionists collaborated with Nazis in exaggerating the Holocaust.
State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said the remarks, combined with Iran's hosting of a conference on supporting the Palestinian uprising, were more evidence that Iran backed terrorism, IRNA quoted him as saying.
"The outrageous and deplorable statements such as those that we've heard ... do nothing to allay our concerns about Iran and its support for terrorism and opposition to Middle East peace," Reeker told reporters.
He said the State Department would next week release its annual report on worldwide terrorism and that Tehran's relations with groups such as Hizbollah and Hamas, who are attending the conference, would be noted.
Khamenei told the conference Tuesday that Zionists worked with the Nazis to exaggerate the Holocaust in a bid to win sympathy for the creation of the Jewish state.
Palestinian groups as well as representatives from 34 Arab and Islamic nations are attending the two-day conference in Tehran aimed at drumming up worldwide support for the seven-month-old Palestinian Intifada.
ISLAMIC JIHAD SAYS HOLY WAR ONLY SOLUTION TO MIDDLE EAST CRISIS
during the conference, head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Abdullah Ramadan Shalah, on Tuesday said the only solution to the current Middle East crisis is jihad or holy war, said IRNA.
"Muslim countries must unite against Israel and force it to recognize the legitimate rights of Palestinians," he told the conference.
"The Zionist regime has proved that peace with her is not a good option," he said, adding that Israel has become very "fragile and vulnerable" in the face of the Palestinian Intifada.
At least 385 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs and 74 other Israelis have been killed during the uprising against Israeli occupation that began in late September last year.
"We will continue our struggles against Israel until we manage to bring the savage regime to its knees even if it takes a century," Shalah said. He noted that Israel has targeted all Muslim nations in the world and has not become content with Palestine.
Another Palestinian official called for the creation of a united Islamic army to strike "terror and fear" in the heart of the Israeli people, said AFP.
"We must create an army and an expanded front for confrontation with the Zionists," said Ahmad Jibril, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC).
"We must sow terror and fear among the Zionists," he said on the second day of an international conference here on supporting the Palestinian Intifada against the Jewish state.
"The flames of the Intifada are raging higher day by day," he said – Albawaba.com
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