Iran Marks Int'l Quds Day Rally Online Due to Covid Pandemic

For the second year, Iran has decided to call off the countrywide demonstrations marking this year’s International Quds (Jerusalem) Day on the last Friday of Ramadan due to the coronavirus concerns.

Rallies to mark Quds Day are held every year in towns and cities across the country and aim to show of support for the Palestinians.

But due to an international pandemic this year the Quds Day rally and conference will be held online.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran called on the world Muslims and advocates of freedom to commemorate the International Quds Day amid an escalation of the “apartheid Zionist regime’s atrocities and crimes and the violation of rights of Palestinians.”

“The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that the establishment of sustainable calm and peace in Palestine will materialize only through the settlement of basic problems in the Palestinian crisis, including an end to occupation, the return of displaced persons, the determination of Palestine’s future governing system on the basis of a referendum with the participation of all main inhabitants, and ultimately the formation of an integrated Palestinian government with the holy al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital,” the statement said.

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.