Iran has condemned an extreme Israeli minister’s violation of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, calling on the world community to respond to the provocative move.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right security minister, stormed al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, in al-Quds’ Old City on Sunday, escorted by occupation troops.
“Such audacious and provocative moves are another aspect of the widespread and continuous crimes of the apartheid Zionist regime against the Palestinian nation, as well as the religious and Islamic sanctities of this land,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani said on Monday.
“They require an effective, swift and deterrent reaction from the Muslim world and the international community,” he added.
Kan’ani made clear that Holy al-Quds is Palestine’s unified and eternal capital and it will remain so, and the Israeli regime’s successive attacks against this city and its Islamic sanctuaries will not change its reality and historical status quo.
During his Sunday morning entry into the al-Aqsa Mosque complex, Ben-Gvir asserted that the Israeli regime was “in charge here,” prompting a wave of condemnation.
According to Israeli media, the minister’s visit was not arranged with the Jordanian Waqf, the body in charge of the site.
According to Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh, “Ben-Gvir’s incursion at an early hour, like thieves, into the al-Aqsa Mosque courtyards will not change reality and will not impose Israeli sovereignty over it.”
On its Telegram channel, the Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement stated that Israel would “bear responsibility for the barbaric incursions of its ministers and herds of settlers.”
Ben Gvir made a similarly provocative journey to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in January, prompting outrage from the Arab world.
Under a status quo agreement reached more than a century ago, only Muslims are permitted to pray in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Non-Muslim guests are only permitted at certain times and in certain regions.
