Caucasian leader praises Iran for defending world muslims

Head of the Caucasus Muslim Department (CMD) Sheikh-ol-Islam Allah Shakour Pashazadeh lauded the Islamic Republic of Iran for hosting the 5th International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifada, and described Iran as a pioneering country in defending the rights of the worldwide Muslims."The successful holding of the Tehran conference under the current conditions plays an important role in the materialization of the Palestinian people's rights," Pashazadeh, the Grand Mufti of the Caucasus, said in a meeting with Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani on Sunday. Elsewhere, he described Islam as a major, and rather the most important, commonality of the Iranian and Azeri nations, and said the two countries enjoy very profound and brotherly relations. The 5th International Conference on the Palestinian Intifada kicked off work here in Tehran on Saturday with over 50 parliamentary delegations and political figures, elites and intellectuals and many state officials from Muslim and non-Muslim countries in attendance. The main goal of the conference is to voice support for the Palestinian intifada. According to the secretary of the conference, parliamentary delegations from Qatar, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Indonesia, Kuwait, Paraguay, Zimbabwe, Zanzibar, Comoros, Malawi, Egypt, Oman, Ivory Coast, Mexico, Malaysia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Cuba, Sudan, Bolivia, Caucasus, Hungary, Colombia, Tanzania, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan are present in the meeting. Iran has always shown a strong support for the Palestinians' rights. In his inaugural address to the Tehran conference on Intifada on Saturday, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei dismissed the two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a cover to legitimize the existence of the Zionist regime, and asked for the full liberation of all Palestinian territories. "Our demand is freedom of Palestine not part of Palestine." "Any plan that seeks to divide Palestine is totally rejected," the Leader noted