News - Middle East: Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi has censured the normalization agreements by certain Arab countries with the Israeli regime, underlining that the liberation of the occupied al-Quds is the "most important issue’  in the Muslim world.

Raeisi made the remark in an address to the opening ceremony of the 37th International Islamic Unity Conference in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Sunday.
“Becoming united does not only mean unity of religions or geography, it rather means to express cohesion and solidarity to safeguard the interests of the Islamic Ummah,” he said.
The Iranian president described Muslims’ unity with adherence to the holy Qur’an and Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) as the secret of their victory throughout history.
Resorting to foreigners and fulfilling their wishes is a “regressive” step, he added.
“The liberation of al-Quds and Palestine is the most important indicator of the unity of the Islamic Ummah,” Raeisi said.
He further stressed that attempts to normalize relations with the Zionist regime are seen as a “retrograde step” for any government as it is what the foreigners want.
“The way to confront the enemy is not through compromise and surrender but through resistance and resilience,” he noted.
“The option of surrender and compromise are by no means on the table; resistance and resilience against the enemy has paid off and will force the enemy to retreat.”
He praised the international conference on Islamic Unity in Tehran as an “anti-Zionism and anti-hegemony” event, saying that “Today’s strategy of unity can fortify the Islamic Ummah against the enemy, and cohesion [works] against its hybrid warfare.”
Raeisi also called for the further consolidation of the Islamic Ummah’s unity in the face of threats posed by Takfiri terror outfits.
“Takfiri groups' horrific crimes perpetrated in mosques and religious centers, explosions in Pakistan and Afghanistan and massacre of people as well as crimes by the US and the Zionist regime’s henchmen in various Islamic countries, entail promoting unity among the Islamic Ummah to confront the Takfiri current,” he added.
He called on Muslim scholars and thinkers to prepare themselves for assuming an important role in the new world order by promoting cohesion, unity, and proximity of faiths.
“Muslims and the Islamic world must establish themselves in the new order, disrupt the current unjust order, and create a just order in the world,” he said, stressing that the Islamic Ummah will play a key role in the emerging world order.
Raeisi said sacrilegious acts such as the desecration of the holy Qur’an and the Prophet, heinous crimes by Takfiri terrorist groups, and normalization deals with the Israeli occupying regime as well as media campaigns spearheaded by the enemies are meant to deter the Islamic Ummah.
“The enemy intends to disappoint the Islamic Ummah about the future by propagating the idea that only everything it wants and wishes will happen, but the Islamic Ummah has foiled such plots,” the Iranian president added.
The 37th International Islamic Unity Conference kicked off in Tehran on Sunday with the participation of hundreds of guests from dozens of Islamic countries.
The annual conference is organized by the Iran-based World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought during the Islamic Unity Week which coincides with the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammed (pbuh).