Iranians chant ‘Death to Israel,’ burn ISIS flag at rallies
ANKARA (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of Iranians chanted “Death to Israel” in nationwide rallies on Friday at which they also burned flags of the Islamic State group.
Iranian state media said millions of people turned out for the rallies to mark Al-Quds Day that was declared by the 1979 Islamic Revolution’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and which is held on the last Friday of Ramadan.
Opposition to Israel is a touchstone of belief for the Iranian regime, which backs Palestinian and Lebanese Islamist terrorist groups opposed to the existence of the Jewish state.
“This year’s rally... shows people want our region to be cleaned up from terrorists, backed by the Zionist regime,” President Hassan Rouhani told state TV.
State TV covering the rallies showed crowds chanting anti-Israel slogans in solidarity with Palestinians whom they urged to continue their fight against the “occupying regime.”
Demonstrators chanted “Death to Israel, Death to America,” and carried banners reading “Israel should be wiped off the map” while people were shown burning the Israeli flag.
People meted out the same treatment for the banner of Islamic State, which has said it carried out deadly twin attacks in Tehran on June 7. Iran accuses regional rival Saudi Arabia of being behind the attacks. Riyadh denies this.
“Daesh [ISIS], America and Israel are all the same. They are all terrorists,” a young woman marcher in Tehran told TV.
Marchers included soldiers, students and clerics. Black-clad women with small children were among those flocking the streets of central Tehran, many carrying portraits of Khomeini and his successor Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In Tehran’s Vali-ye Asr Street, three mid-range surface-to-surface ballistic missiles were displayed, including the Zolfaghar missile that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards used on Sunday to target ISIS bases in eastern Syria.
Top Guards commanders have repeatedly said that Israel is within range of Iran’s missiles. Sunni states in the Gulf and Israel say Tehran’s ballistic missile program is a threat to regional security; the United States has imposed new sanctions because of the missiles.
“With this rally our nation is telling America that we are determined to continue our path,” Rouhani said, referring to the US Senate’s decision to impose new sanctions.