Teheran government calls mass 'riot against Israel'

Monsters and Critics:

The government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Iranians Thursday 'to riot against Zionists (Israel) and unbelievers' in nationwide demonstrations planned for Friday.

In a statement carried by the ISNA news agency, Ahmadinejad's government said that the demonstrations should be a clear reply to the 'crimes by Israel against the Palestinian nation' in the last five decades in the 'Moslems' holiest venue' - Jerusalem. READ MORE

'The flame of the Intifada (uprising) in Palestine is shining more than ever on the way to liberating residents of the prophets' land (Jerusalem), and has already caused humiliating defeats for the Zionists such as the forceful retreat from the Gaza Strip,' the statement said.

Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, late spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had ordered the annual holding of the Qods (Jerusalem) Day demonstrations in Teheran and all other Iranian provincial capitals on the last Friday of the Ramadan fasting month.

Khomeini had also designated Ramadan as a month of solidarity for the Palestinian nation and against Israel's occupation of Jerusalem, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque is located.

Iranian leaders have since regularly held state-organised demonstrations to show Iran's uncompromising stance against the Israeli state.

This year's demonstrations have been marked by Ahmadinejad's remarks expressing the hope that Khomeini's prediction of Israel's eradication from the Islamic world would come true thRough a 'new wave' of Palestinian anti-Israeli fighters.