Remarks by IEA Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi at the High-Level Political Consultative Conference on Palestine. Tehran, IranDecember 23, 2023

الحمد لله رب العالمین والعاقبه للمتقین والصلات والسلام علی اشرف الانبیاء والمرسلین وعلی آله وآصحابه آجمعین آما بعد:
اعوذ بالله من الشیطن الرجیم.
بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم
” سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَىٰ بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا مِّنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الْأَقْصَى الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ لِنُرِيَهُ مِنْ آيَاتِنَا ۚ إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ ”
صدق الله العلی العظیم

Dear Brother, Hussein Amir Abdullahian, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran,
Your Excellencies, Presidents,
Respected Ministers,
Scholars,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

AssalamuAlaikum…

First and foremost, allow me to express my gratitude to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran for taking this responsible and timely initiative, and allowing us to discuss the most important and painful regional, Islamic and humanitarian issue.

Dear Colleagues,

We have all come together at a time when, even probably as I speak, a young Palestinian in Gaza is being martyred, a mother is grieving, and many children are losing their parents!

This is precisely the 78th day since the indiscriminate massacre and genocide of the people of Gaza started – and the world that purports human rights, human values, freedom, and justice are mere spectacles of this brutality.

This makes us live in an epoch of great paradoxes.

In a world where countries are sanctioned under the pretext of the slightest violation of human rights or on political grounds through the instrumentalization of the human rights paradigm… but at the same time, the unremitting genocide of a nation by a regime that is breaching all human standards in it’s war is not even dealt with the slightest objection!

While dozens of international conventions on human rights and humanitarian issues are enforceable as nearly 20,000 people were massacred over the last 78 days – more than half of which are women and children – but at the same time, the same conventions are politically instrumentalized in other cases.

Dear colleagues,

With this, can the current world order with all these contradictions, founded following World War ll, address the needs of people in the 21st century?!

Is it possible to play with the wisdom of the 21st-century man with all these duplicitous approaches and standards?!

I believe the cognizant human conscience cannot be satisfied with such contradictory treatment. We need a new world order that is based on justice and equity. A system that does not ignore the rights of any human and state, and is immune to political exploitation. An order able to bring peace, justice and stability to the world.

Whether we like it or not, echo it or not… The conscience of today’s man cannot be kept unshaken by all these contradictions.

This great contradiction has become crystal clear following the genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza and allowing the Zionist regime a free hand, and thus, a change in the current world order is imperative.

It is grotesque to see my country, Afghanistan, being sanctioned by instrumentalizing of human rights – when we are taking steps towards security and stability following more than four decades of foreign invasions!

How can an Afghan consciously accept such double standards?!

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as a system that has arisen from within its people and has ended the 20-year occupation of America and NATO in Afghanistan with the help of Allah and the steadfastness and resilience of the Afghan Mujahid and heroic people, today feels the pain and suffering of the Palestinian Muslims with all its heart and soul.

We, who have been the victims of international contradictions for many years, share more than any other nation the suffering of the Palestinian Muslim nation.

The issue of Palestine is not limited to the Palestinian people, rather it is an Arab, Islamic, and ultimately human issue….No free man who believes in justice and human values can watch with indifference the Zionist regime’s atrocities in Palestine!

Excellencies,

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as part of the Islamic Ummah, has always condemned the ongoing atrocities by the Zionist regime in Gaza and occupied Palestine – and considers the struggle of the Palestinian nation as legitimate and legal based on Sharia texts and international law.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as a guardian of Islamic values, calls on influential Islamic countries to play a more effective role in putting an end to the killing of innocent Palestinian people by the Zionist regime and holding the Zionist regime accountable.

The Islamic world should unite in turning Palestine’s cries of freedom into a streamlined narrative and prevent political differences from intervening in this matter. Today’s initiative by the Islamic Republic of Iran is commendable.

However, more regional countries need to act, so that the indiscriminate killing of the oppressed people of Palestine is stopped. These efforts should continue until the Palestinian issue is resolved permanently and justly. A solution that would ensure the Palestinian people have a state established in the historic land of Palestine.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan stands ready, within its capabilities, to accompany the Islamic world in this humanitarian and Islamic issue.

Thank you, and let me once again let me express my gratitude to the IRA-MoFA for providing this opportunity.