Iranian Foreign Ministry has issued a statement on Friday to stress its support for the Palestinian cause and urge the Muslim countries and world organizations to end Israeli crimes against Palestinian nation.

The ministry issued a statement on Friday, on the eve of the Nakba Day (the Day of Catastrophe), when in 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forcibly evicted from their homeland and Israel proclaimed its illegal existence.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran, while expressing its full solidarity with the Palestinian cause, … calls on all governments and international bodies to shoulder their human and legal duties vis-à-vis the oppressed Palestinian people and prevent a continuation of occupation and crimes by the regime occupying al-Quds and the spread of its racist policies in occupied Palestine,” the statement read.

It said as history shows, any compromise with the sworn enemies of Muslim nations encourages the apartheid Zionist regime in its inhumane acts and violations of human rights.

“The Muslim nations and their leaders should know the only way to realize the Palestinian people’s rights is maintaining unity, and keeping up support from the freedom-seeking governments and Muslim nations for resistance against the occupiers and bullying powers,” the ministry said.

“Iran believes that just and lasting peace will not be established in the Middle East unless through the resolution of the fundamental issues in this crisis, including ending the organized occupation of Palestine, securing a return of refugees, deciding Palestine’s future establishment via a referendum participated by all of its true owners, and the formation of a unified Palestinian government, with al-Quds as its capital.”

The statement said May 14, 1948 is reminiscent of occupation, massacre and displacement of the true owners of the Palestinian land at the hands of the Zionist occupiers and usurpers, and the onset of a trend of systematic violations of the Palestinian nation’s basic rights.

Since then, it said, the criminal Zionists — backed by some Western powers — have usurped the Palestinian land with the use of weapons and through carnage and plunder, laying the foundation for lasting insecurity and instability in the West Asia region, a situation that continues to this day.

The anniversary of Nakba once again reminds the international community of its human and legal duty of defending the Palestinian people’s rights and puts on display the failure of international institutions and organizations to resolve one of the longest-running humanitarian and political crises in the world, the statement read.

The Iranian ministry stated that addressing the issue of Palestine should be the first and foremost issue for the Muslim world, saying any attempt by the global Zionism to drive the issue into oblivion would be doomed to failure.

The Nakba Day is set as May 15 every year, but Israelis celebrate what they call their ‘Independence Day’ in accordance with the Hebrew calendar. Since the Gregorian and Hebrew calendars do not correspond, the two events may fall days apart in any given year.