Exceptional Plans Devised for Quds Day in Iran: Official
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – While countrywide demonstrations marking the International Quds (Jerusalem) Day have been cancelled in Iran due to the coronavirus outbreak, a series of exceptional plans has been formulated to mark the event, an official said.
Deputy head of the Islamic Development Organization of Iran’s coordination council announced on Sunday that this year’s demonstrations marking the International Quds Day will not be held because of the coronavirus outbreak and the health restrictions to contain the epidemic.
However, a special and exceptional event will be held in honor of the Quds Day on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan, he added, noting that Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei will deliver a speech to the Islamic Ummah (community) on May 22.
The Leader’s speech will be aired live on local and international radio and television channels, he added.
In order to make the most of Ayatollah Khamenei’s speech, no other event will be held in any part of the country in the name of Quds Day plans, the official stated.
In early May, head of the Intifada (Uprising) and Quds Center at Iran’s Islamic Propagation Coordination Council, General Ramezan Sharif, said this year’s Quds Day rallies won’t be held since the situation is not normal in the wake of the outbreak of COVID-19.
Unveiling plans for the Leader’s speech on the Quds Day, the general said the organizers of the event will take advantage of the media and receive messages from anti-Israeli resistance officials.
He said Ismail Haniyeh, the chief of the political bureau of Islamic resistance movement Hamas, or another major figure of resistance will possibly take part in the Quds Day commemorations in Tehran as a guest.
The International Quds Day is an annual event during which demonstrators express their solidarity with the Palestinian people and opposition to the occupation of the Palestinian territories by the Zionist regime of Israel.
The day is seen as the legacy of the late founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Khomeini, who officially declared the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan as International Quds Day back in 1979.