IRI's help to Palestine beyond Shia interests - Major General Soleimani

Iran did not support the Palestinian people because of “Shia interests,” Major General Qassem Soleimani said in a ceremony to mark the global day of mosques in Tehran on Sunday.

Almost all Palestinians are Sunnis, he said, and yet “we defend them.”

The ceremony was held on the 48^th anniversary of an arson attack by Zionist Israelis on the al-Aqsa mosque in the occupied al-Quds (‘Jerusalem’).

General Soleimani said the Islamic Republic does not seek materialistic interests in supporting Iraq and Syria — where it has advisory military presence — and the Palestinian cause.

“When we entered Iraq, we didn’t differentiate between our interests and those of Iraq; and we were not after [taking control of] oil wells or seizing cities like Mosul or Kirkuk. We did not and do not have monetary demands, either,” Major General Soleimani, who commands the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), said.

The senior commander also said that in spite of the violent capacities of the Daesh terrorist group and the creation of such other militant outfits as Jaish al-Islam in Syria, Iran had been able to bring stability to Syria.

Referring to Daesh terrorists, he said, “These are people who send a hundred suicide bombers to the battlefield every day.”

“It was with religion that we fought against their religious war, not with military power,” the Iranian commander said.

Major General Soleimani said the Iranian government had succeeded in transcending matters of language and race, thus bringing about stability.

He said Iran was now enjoying a status of real power in the region.