Jamaat-e-islami (JI) Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has condemned the United States and Israeli aggression against Iran calling it the worst state terrorism and demanded that Islamabad openly side with Iran.
Addressing a press conference at the Karachi JI headquarters, Idara Noor-e-Haq, and a party convention on Sunday, he said the United States and Israel jointly attacked Iran and martyred Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and members of his family.
Rehman termed it a day of grief for the entire Muslim Ummah. He said the US had long attempted to undermine Iran and topple its revolution. He added that there was also a time when sectarian conflict between Shia and Sunni communities was fueled in the entire region.
Rehman said Iran supported Gaza and stood firmly with the Palestinian resistance. He said efforts were being made to dismantle Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme. He said the US and Israel carried out two attacks within a year against Iran and added that America was pushing the world toward widespread conflict, instability and fire.
Criticising Pakistan’s leadership, he said Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif nominated US President Donald Trump twice for the Nobel Prize to prolong his own rule. He said that while Trump supported attacks on Gaza, Pakistan’s prime minister saluted him, compromising national dignity.
He said more than 80,000 people had been killed in Gaza and several more in the West Bank. Israel used bombs in Gaza that caused human bodies to evaporate, he added. The US fully supported Israel in its crimes, the JI chief said.
He stated that Pakistan was facing insecurity, bomb blasts and suicide attacks, adding that before 2000, the country did not experience such conditions. He blamed what he called ‘American slavery policies’ for destabilising the country.
He described the situation in Gaza as genocide and said the Zionists dream of creating ‘Greater Israel’, including Syria, Jordan and the Hijaz region. He urged Islamabad to immediately disengage from war policies that were harming the country internally.
Expressing solidarity with Iran, he saluted the Iranian nation for chanting anti-American slogans despite bombardment and said Pakistanis stood with Iran while condemning the US and Israel, as well as those who had not openly condemned them.
He criticised the US over its historical record referring to the killing of Native Americans and atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and said that America had never truly won a war.
He said the time had come to declare Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as war criminals. He called for the American public to rise against Trump, warning that otherwise the US could face decline.
He urged the Pakistani nation to unite in support of Iran and pressure the government to do the same, warning that if the US and Israel succeeded in regime change in Iran, Pakistan could be next.
He also mentioned protests outside the US consulate in Karachi and demanded an inquiry into reports claiming that protesters were shot dead, asking Shehbaz to clarify who authorised such action. He warned that if weak rulers remained in power, they could cause the country to lose its sovereignty. JI MPA Mohammad Farooq also led the funeral prayers in absentia for Khamenei at the RCD Ground in Malir, Saudabad.
