Raisi meets Sudani, says Iran and Iraq have ‘common position’ on Gaza war

TEHRAN (AA) – Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said on Monday the biggest concern of the Islamic world at the moment is “crimes against Palestinians.”

Leading a high-level delegation, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani arrived in Tehran on an unannounced visit in the wee hours of Monday morning.

The visit came a day after Sudani met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Baghdad.

After their delegation-level talks, Raisi told media persons at a joint presser that Iran and Iraq have a “common position” on the Palestinian issue: a halt to bombings in Gaza and the establishment of a cease-fire. Israel has continued to attack the besieged Palestinian enclave from land, air and sea since last month’s cross border attack by Hamas.

He said Israel is “committing crimes against humanity” and “genocide” in the Gaza Strip, and noted Islamic countries “cannot and will not be silent in the face of Israeli atrocities in Gaza.”

Repeating what he has said on multiple occasions in recent weeks, Iran’s president said the military, intelligence, and financial support provided to Israel by the US has emboldened it to “commit cruel acts against the Palestinian people.”

“America claims that it seeks to help Gaza and establish a cease-fire, but what we see in practice and in the UN resolutions is to open the hands of the Zionist regime to kill and kill,” Raisi added.

He said the US and other Western allies of Israel are “complicit” in the war crimes underway in Gaza.

Sudani emphasized his country’s position on “the liberation of Palestine and establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

The Iraqi premier said his visit to Tehran aimed to “emphasize the deepening of Iran-Iraq relations,” adding that the most important topic of discussion is the “organized genocide” of Palestinians in Gaza.

He termed the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, launched by Hamas on October 7, “a result of years of criminal policies of the Zionist regime against the people of Gaza.”

The two leaders also touched on Tehran-Baghdad bilateral ties, including the implementation of a security agreement between the two sides, the construction of a railway project and the development of trade.