Fight to ‘liberate Palestine’ from Israel is ‘Islamic duty’ ―Iran’s Khamenei

Iran’s supreme leader said it was an “Islamic duty” to fight for the “liberation of Palestine” in a landmark speech Friday amid rising tensions with regional arch-enemy Israel.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lashed out at Western governments and their Arab “puppets” for supporting the Jewish state, in his first ever address marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day.
The 80-year-old leader also appeared to confirm for the first time that Iran has helped to provide Palestinians with arms.
The remarks came at the end of a week that saw Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launch a Twitter tirade against Khamenei and reports that the two sides carried out cyber attacks on each other.
“The aim of this struggle is the liberation of the entire Palestinian land” and “the return of all Palestinians to their country,” Khamenei said in the speech broadcast live on state television.
“The policy of normalising the presence of the Zionist regime in the region is one of the major policies of the United States of America,” he said.
“Some Arab governments in the region, which play the role of US puppets, have provided the necessary preconditions for this, such as economic ties and the like; these efforts are completely fruitless and sterile.
“Everyone must fill the hand of the Palestinian fighter and strengthen his back.
“We will proudly do our best in this way.
“One day we realised that the only problem of the Palestinian fighter… was the lack of weapons.