November 18, 2016
Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif has declared Israel to be the main problem facing the Muslim world, calling on Muslim countries to unite rather than diverge in the face of Zionism.
“Muslim states should respond to the Zionist regime’s violations of the Palestinian people’s rights,” Zarif said at the First International Conference on the Geopolitical Crises in the Islamic World in Tehran on Monday.
The Muslim world, however, has failed to unite behind the cause of delivering such a response due to “discourse difficulties,” which have hindered constructive interaction among Muslim countries.
Some “delusional” rulers in Islamic countries, Zarif said, have been attempting to portray Islam’s main problem as such false threats as discord between Shias and Sunnis or Arabs and Persians.
He cautioned Muslim countries not to engage in “deviation and the giving of false directions,” and thereby prevent “this challenge [of extremism] from turning into a substantive challenge and a threat that is not just limited to the geographical contours of Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and the Muslim world, but one that threatens all humanity.”