Iran’s President: Support for Israel Is ‘Western Racism and Colonialism’

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi declared that support for Israel in the face of an unprecedented mass murder by the Iran-backed terror organization Hamas is a manifestation of “racism and colonialism” in remarks on Wednesday.

Raisi made the comment during a meeting with Bakary Yaou Sangare, the top diplomat for the recently installed coup regime of Niger. The African Sahel country experienced an anti-French coup in July, ousting President Mohamed Bazoum and installing the former head of Bazoum’s presidential guard, General Abdourahmane Tchiani, as president. Tchiani has managed to maintain control of the country ever since, reportedly keeping Bazoum under house arrest. While early speculation following the coup suggested Tchiani may dramatically alter the nation’s foreign policy to destroy ties to America and the West, most of his junta’s actions have been directed only at the former colonial power of France.

Raisi appeared to be attempting to draw a comparison between French colonialism in Africa and the existence of Israel to galvanize support for Iran’s jihadist cause. Iran is a top donor of funds to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Hezbollah, and other genocidal jihadist terror groups who seek the destruction of Israel and the elimination of the Jewish people. A 2020 State Department report estimated that Iran donates $100 million a year to Hamas and PIJ. Other reports have suggested Hezbollah — which, like the Iranian Islamist regime, is Shiite-led — receives $700 million a year in support from Tehran.

Hamas, Hezbollah, and PIJ held a joint leadership meeting in Lebanon on Wednesday to plan a so-called “all-out victory” against Israel.

“The leaders tackled latest developments since the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the events that followed on all fronts including the confrontations across the border between Lebanon and the occupied Palestine,” the Hezbollah “media relations office” announced.

“In a meeting with Foreign Minister of Niger Bakary Yaou Sangare, held in Tehran on Wednesday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi highlighted the Western governments’ hegemonic policies in modern history,” Iran’s Tasnim News Agency relayed, paraphrasing Raisi’s comments. “He noted that the crimes the Zionist regime [Israel] is currently committing against the Gaza Strip and the supports from the Western states for these Israeli atrocities lay bare the true image of Western racism and colonialism.”

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The state-run Iranian propaganda network PressTV quoted Raisi as describing support for Israel as the “naked face of racism and colonialism.” To clarify, PressTV added, “He was referring to the US and its European allies throwing their weight behind the Israeli regime in its ongoing war of aggression on Gaza.”

Raisi specifically noted that French President Emmanuel Macron had condemned the brutal mass murder of more than 1,200 civilians, ranging in ages from newborns to the elderly, by Hamas in Israel — a bid to ingratiate Iran and its pro-terrorism stance with the Nigerien visitor. Macron on Tuesday urged the world to create an international coalition to destroy Hamas modeled after the coalition that eliminated the Islamic State “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria (the Islamic State remains a threat in southern Africa and Southeast Asia).

Raisi also used the meeting to praise the Nigerien representative for the nation’s coup against a democratically elected president.

“Being strong and resilient in the path towards reaching goals and protecting unity and solidarity are the key to success in achieving independence and freedom,” he declared, promising “cooperation” from Iran if Niger sought it.

The ongoing escalation in Israel and Gaza is the result of a massive terrorist attack by Hamas in which terrorists invaded Israeli territory and went door-to-door in residential communities, killing as many people as possible. Hamas terrorists tortured victims and filmed themselves desecrating bodies; Israeli authorities confirmed the discovery of dead children and decapitated babies, as well as remains appearing to be of babies that were so charred as to be unrecognizable.

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Iran responded to the attack by throwing a gigantic party in the center of Tehran that night, organizing a fireworks display and crowds to chant “death to Israel” and “death to America.” A Hamas spokesman, Ghazi Hamad, told the BBC on the day of the attack that Iran had given the group “direct backing” for the massacre.

The Iranian terror regime has since spent the past three weeks condemning Israel for organizing a plan to eradicate the Hamas threat — and threatening Iranian attacks against the country.

“The continuation of the Zionist regime’s crimes (in Gaza) and the direct support and backing from certain countries would further complicate the situation and could make other actors intervene in this arena,” the head of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri, said Thursday, not omitting Iran on the list of potential “other actors” getting involved. That same week, Raisi celebrated the beginning of “the termination of Israel” in response to the bombing of a Gaza hospital by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a jihadist terror group. Iran, Hamas, and other jihadist groups attributed the bombing to Israel.

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Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who landed in New York on Thursday, threatened “any possibility any moment” against Israel on Sunday.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated to reflect a revised number on the death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel. The Israeli government estimate of 1,400 was revised to around 1,200, according to Reuters.

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