TEHRAN, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Ministry on Sunday strongly condemned Israel's siege of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem and its crackdown on Palestinian worshippers.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi urged the international community and human rights groups to support the Palestinians and take a firm stance against the "inhuman measures and aggression of Israel," Press TV reported
Qasemi was referring to the restrictions imposed by Israel to limit access to the holy Muslim shrine by Palestinians.
Qasemi said the Israeli crackdown on Palestinians "shows that Palestine is still the first concern of the Islamic world and the Zionist regime (of Israel) acts as the manifestation, source, and origin of state terrorism and panic in the region."
He also criticized other countries in the region for what he called "silence and inaction" in the face of the Israeli atrocities.
On Friday, three Palestinian protesters were killed and hundreds others injured in clashes with Israeli troops in East Jerusalem and West Bank, which were triggered off by Israel's installation of metal detectors and cameras at the entrances to Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The recent Israeli measures led to new tensions to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that has lasted for decades since the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the Western-backed creation of Israel in 1948.
The Palestinians seek to establish an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital city in light of the UN-proposed two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders.
