DUBAI, January 23. /TASS/. Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has called on Islamic countries to sever all ties with Israel instead of helping it.
"The task for all Islamic countries is to cut off every artery of the Zionist regime (Israel - TASS). They must sever their political and economic ties with it instead of helping it," the IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
"The positions and statements by representatives of Islamic countries are sometimes erroneous. They speak about a ceasefire but this matter is now in the hands of Zionists," he said. "Islamic countries must use what they have."
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.