President Hassan Rouhani says the US and its allies have failed in their attempts to portray Israel as a “normal country” just like others in the region thanks to the vigilance in the Muslim world, praising Iran as the flag-bearer of struggles against the occupying entity.

“We should not doubt that the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation are on the front line of the battle against the arrogance and the Zionist regime,” Rouhani told the 33rd International Islamic Unity Conference, which opened in Tehran on Thursday morning.

“This, of course, does not mean that the nations of Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Yemen are not on the front line, but Islamic Iran is the establishment that has paid the highest price for resistance and standing up to the US and Zionism over the past 41 years.”

Rouhani also said enemies have in recent years tried to consign to oblivion the issue of Palestine and Jerusalem al-Quds as the main problem facing the Muslim world, but Muslim scholars have not allowed and will not allow such a thing to happen.

The enemies, he added, have also sought to make Muslims forget the crimes committed by the West — led by the US — against the Islamic world.

“They wanted Israel to be accepted by all Muslim people in the region, even by the Palestinians, as a normal and typical country,” he said.

“Today, no one in the region and the Islamic world has any doubt that ... the US and the Zionist regime have been the root cause of all war, massacre, bloodshed and division in our region at least over the past three decades,” he said.

Rouhani also cited the massacre of people in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen as well as disputes among Muslim countries as examples of “ominous” US plots in the region.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (C) delivers a speech at the 33rd International Islamic Unity Conference, Tehran, November 14, 2019. (Photo by Tasnim)

Addressing the conference, Bahrain’s top Shia cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim urged the Muslim nations to tighten their ranks and not to abandon the Palestinians in the face of the Zionist regime’s oppression.

He further enumerated Palestine, Jerusalem al-Quds and the al-Aqsa Mosque as the ideals of the Muslim Ummah, adding that some Arabic establishments have turned their back to Palestine by submitting to the already-failed US deal.

Naim Qassem, the deputy secretary general of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement, also delivered a speech at the event, saying it is a “collective responsibility” to work towards liberating Palestine.

He highlighted the need for the Muslim world to put up resistance in the face of Israel, saying it was “resistance that saved us from tribal and sectarian rifts.”

The conference marks the birth anniversary of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. Themed “Ummah unity in defending the al-Aqsa Mosque,” the event will run until November 16, with 350 personalities from 93 countries in attendance.

The International Islamic Unity Conference is held annually in an effort to lay the ground for stronger unity and solidarity among Muslims and provide solutions for their problems.