Iran has called on the United Nations "to stop the massacre" of Palestinian civilians, and give them international protection, the foreign ministry said Thursday.
"The foreign ministry has called on the UN to stop the massacres of Palestinian women, youths and children, and to provide them with international protection", the ministry said in a statement received by AFP.
Israel cut off relations earlier Thursday with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, declaring him irrelevant, and said it would take its own measures to eliminate "terrorists" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Iran's foreign minister, in an interview with Qods (Jerusalem), a newly set-up news agency covering Palestinian issues, accused the United States of "targetting defenseless Palestinians instead of tackling terrorism at the root".
"Washington's approach toward the Middle East is one-sided", Kamal Kharazi said.
"The situation is deteriorating each day and we have reached the conclusion that the previous approach toward the crisos has proved to be unsuccessful", he said, referring to the Middle East peace process.
Israel "tries to deflect public opinion and take advantage of the present situation to relate the Middle East problems to recent events in the United States in order to escalate tension in the region and justify its terrorist attacks as a legitimate fight against terrorism", Kharazi said.
Iran does not recognize Israel and has good relations with the Palestinian authorities and Arafat, as well as with extremist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad – Tehran (AFP)
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