Islamic Jihad leader says Iraq visit sends strong message to Israel

Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement, Ziyad Al-Nakhala, said his visit as the head of the Movement’s delegation to Iraq carries a “strong message” to the Israeli enemy regarding Iraq’s support for Palestine.

In remarks to Al-Mayadeen TV channel, Nakhala said the importance of his visit to Baghdad lies in the fact that it comes “in response to the [Israeli] enemy’s attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque.

“The visit is a clear message that Iraq stands with the Palestinian people and their Resistance. It is also highly influential in the region and carries a strong message to Israel regarding Iraq’s support for Palestine,” he said.

“The Arab scene and the Resistance scene, and this great inter-dependence, came as a result of the Resistance’s growing strength and the accumulation of the enemy’s tyranny,” Nakhala said, expressing pride in the Arab position.

“We are at the height of the challenge, and we feel the importance of the Resistance unity in the face of Israel, and the importance of the official Arab position, which has now been embodied in the official position of Iraq in its siding with the Palestinian people,” he said

On Thursday, the former Iraqi Prime Minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, received Nakhala and the accompanying delegation in Baghdad.

Abdul-Mahdi said the Iraqi government and people are an integral part of the heroic Palestinian struggle, and its main role is uniting the arenas to liberate Palestine and the rest of the occupied Arab lands, confronting the enemy’s plans in Al-Aqsa Mosque, and ending the Israeli occupation, settlement policies, displacement, daily killing, collective punishments and normalisation policies.

During the meeting, Nakhala and his accompanying delegation presented the latest developments on the Palestinian, regional and international arena.

Al-Nakhala arrived in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday evening, after receiving an official invitation.

The Movement issued a statement saying the visit will include meetings with high-level Iraqi officials, party leaders and figures, as well as civic events.

The delegation will hold discussions on the latest Palestinian and Arab developments and ways to support the Resistance in Palestine, especially in Jerusalem, in the face of the Israeli attacks and storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

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