Shaaban: Current Events in Arab Region Serve Zionist Entity’s Settlement Expansion Project

DAMASCUS- Al-Quds International Foundation held on Wednesday a forum commemorating the 47th anniversary of the burning of al-Aqsa Mosque at al-Assad National Library in Damascus.

Presidential Political and Media Advisor Bouthaina Shaaban, who is the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of al-Quds International Foundation, stressed at the forum that what is currently going on in the Arab region serves the Zionist entity and its settlement expansion projects not only in Palestine but also in the entire Arab world, SANA reported.

  “All delusions and pretensions have fallen, and traitors rushed to Israel, gave interviews to the Zionist entity, and voiced intent to open doors to this entity when the circumstances allow them,” she said.

She added that Palestine will remain the compass for the Arabs, affirming that the appropriate response to what is currently happening in the Arab countries would be to stand united in support of the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian prisoners and against the Israeli practices of Judaization, settlement and the burning al-Aqsa Mosque and all the measures of oppression taken by the Zionist entity against the Palestinian people.

Shaaban branded as “traitors” all the parties that are involved in what is happening to Palestine, Syria, Libya, Iraq and Yemen, stressing that the Takfiri terrorist gangs must be dubbed as “Zionist gangs” since they are implementing the project of the Zionist entity.

In turn, Religious Endowments (Awqaf) Minister Mohammad Abdelsattar al-Sayyed said that the Zionists are the ones who created ISIS, al-Nusra, and other terrorist organizations, stressing that the terrorism that burned al-Aqsa and Palestine is the same as the terrorism that burned mosques, churches, and landmarks in Syria.

For his part, the Director General of al-Quds International Foundation’s Syria branch Wael Baheth pointed out that the whole nation, Christians and Muslims alike, is demanding to find means to end the status quo imposed by the entity of the Israeli occupation.

Meanwhile, Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Sebastia Atallah Hanna said that Syria is being targeted because it always supported the Palestinian cause, asserting that the ones who are seeking to liquidate the Palestinian cause and normalize relations with the occupation are the same ones who stoke terrorism and violence in Syria.

In recorded message from occupied Jerusalem, director of al-Aqsa Mosque Omar Kaswani called on the Arab and Islamic world to shoulder its responsibility towards al-Aqsa, saying that the steadfastness of the people of Jerusalem will foil plots seeking to Judaize the city and vandalize al-Aqsa.

The burning of al-Aqsa Mosque took place in August 21st 1969 when Denis Michael Rohan set fire to it. The fire destroyed the wooden pulpit that was made in Aleppo and placed in the mosque by Saladin in the 12th century, in addition to damaging over 1500 square meters out of the mosque’s original area of 4400 square meters.