This year’s anti-Zionist, Quds Day rallies in Iran will go ahead online amid the coronavirus pandemic, announced Nosrtollah Lotfi, the deputy chief of the Islamic Development Coordinating Council, yesterday.
According to Tehran Times, the Palestinian solidarity rallies will also be held in cities that are categorised as falling in the so-called “white zone” with cars carrying the flag of Palestine.
Last month it was announced that Iran, the most affected country in the region will be divided into three quarantine zones as it addresses the COVID-19 pandemic. President Hassan Rouhani said the country will be divided into white, yellow and red zones.
“If a province has no coronavirus patients and the number of recovered cases have been increasing for two weeks, the Health Ministry will announce the region as white zone,” he is quoted as saying.
On Sunday, Tasnim News Agency reported that this year’s Quds event will be cancelled and commemorated by other means. Speaking at a press conference, the head of the Intifada and Quds Centre at Iran’s Islamic Propagation Coordination Council, General Ramazan Sharif said that other programs will substitute the rallies.
He also said that the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, will deliver a speech on International Quds Day (22 May this year) and that the chief of the political bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, may attend commemorations in the capital Tehran, as a guest.
Quds Day rallies are commemorated globally to express support for Palestinian liberation and to oppose Zionism and is held on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan. It was first initiated by the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini shortly after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
In line with this year’s Quds Day, the UK-based Islamic Human Rights Commission will be taking part in the #FlyTheFlag online campaign with an online rally scheduled on 22 May between 4-6pm GMT.
Last year’s Quds Day was observed under the slogan “Resistance will triumph” against the pro-Zionist, expansionist policies of US President Donald Trump, including his recognition of Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel in 2017.
Source » middleeastmonitor