The Illusion of “Greater Israel”: An Existential Threat to International Peace and Security

According to Rokna, citing the Government Information Base, Araghchi’s op-ed, published in Asharq al-Awsat, was released under the title “The Illusion of ‘Greater Israel’: An Existential Threat to International Peace and Security.” The full text reads as follows:

On the Eve of the OIC Meeting

On the eve of the extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers of Islamic countries in Jeddah, once again the conscience of the world — this time with greater urgency — has been drawn to the greatest existential and identity threat engulfing the region and the Islamic world: the Zionist regime.

This regime has spared no effort in the complete destruction of Gaza, reducing it to scorched earth. It has launched the most atrocious massacres against women and children, displaced civilians repeatedly through forced expulsion, used starvation and famine as modern tools of genocide, and turned food distribution centers into death traps for innocent and hungry women and children. In doing so, it has created one of the most horrifying human tragedies of the modern era.

What is unfolding in Gaza is not merely a transient military confrontation or an ordinary humanitarian crisis. Rather, it is a fully organized genocide and a clear case of ethnic cleansing, carried out under the full silence of the United States and the West.

Beyond Gaza

The crimes of the Zionist regime are not confined to Gaza. Rapidly expanding settlement construction in the West Bank, accompanied by terrorist acts of armed settlers against Palestinians to force their displacement and annexation of the territory; intensification of Judaization in al-Quds al-Sharif; repeated violations of ceasefires; continued attacks on Lebanon; strikes on Yemen’s infrastructure; attempts to weaken the foundations of the Syrian state and fuel unrest for its partition; the recent military aggression against Iran which claimed the lives of more than one thousand of my compatriots; and finally, the public statements and falsified maps released by the regime’s leaders regarding what they call the “Greater Middle East” — all reveal the cancerous expansion and penetration of this entity throughout the region.

The plan for the full military occupation of Gaza and the forced displacement of its inhabitants to remote areas is but a new link in the sinister chain of genocide against the Palestinian nation. The actions and statements of Zionist war criminals, pursued by international tribunals, clearly expose the “premeditated intent” of this illegitimate and fabricated regime to complete its project of ethnic cleansing.

Their aim is the final, irreversible erasure of the geographic and political identity of Gaza in particular, and the Palestinian issue in general. While orchestrating atrocities, fueling wars, and pursuing adventurism in Gaza, Lebanon, and other parts of the region, the occupiers simultaneously bomb and destroy Syria’s vital infrastructure, seeking to partition the country and spread chaos in areas like Sweida.

Which Country Will Be Next?

This raises the fundamental and decisive question: After Syria, which country of the region will be the target of aggression or occupation? Can any limit be imagined for the insatiable ambitions of this regime?

The recent remarks and actions of the Israeli Prime Minister, aligned with the execution of the expansionist plan known as “Greater Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates,” are not mere passing claims. They represent a direct and explicit declaration of a strategic policy that violates the national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of independent states of the region — including Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, and even Kuwait, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.

This dangerous claim constitutes a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter and peremptory norms of international law, clearly revealing the regime’s aggressive intentions to dominate the entire Islamic world.

The Role of the West

In such circumstances, the continued cooperation and support of certain Western powers — especially the United States — for this criminal regime constitutes not only complicity in its crimes, but also an escalating threat to regional and global peace.

Repeated vetoes of resolutions in the UN Security Council have prevented this international body from fulfilling its responsibility to halt Israel’s aggression and to prosecute its war criminals.

The Humanitarian Catastrophe

This extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) convenes at a moment when the situation in occupied Palestine has surpassed the threshold of catastrophe. Words and expressions are no longer sufficient to describe this horrifying human and moral tragedy.

The mere statistics of martyrs and wounded are both shocking and shameful: more than 70,000 people — most of them women and children — have, over the past two years, either been killed or buried under the rubble of bombings, while more than 170,000 have been injured.

According to the United Nations, an average of 38 Palestinian children are killed daily, in the most appalling manner, at the hands of Israel. Today, 90% of Gaza has become uninhabitable, as Israel has formally initiated the military occupation of the city and expelled defenseless residents toward the south of the Strip.

Netanyahu’s Declaration of “Greater Israel”

In these circumstances, the Prime Minister of this criminal regime, fully supported by Western powers, openly and proudly declares that he is tasked with implementing the idea of “Greater Israel” — a sinister intention to occupy and annex Arab and Islamic lands, from Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria to Saudi Arabia.

Given these realities, there is no room for illusion or indifference.

The Role of the OIC

The upcoming OIC meeting must serve as a turning point, cementing the collective determination of Islamic states to curb Netanyahu’s insatiable ambitions and to halt the ongoing massacre of innocents, the destruction of Islamic countries, and the annexation of their territories.

This meeting must not be confined to declarations of solidarity with the Palestinian people or expressions of regret over the current situation. It is a historic test for the Islamic Ummah — perhaps one of the few opportunities to form a regional and global coalition to stop Israeli aggression.

The summit must go beyond issuing statements of condemnation. It must result in the imposition of maximum political and diplomatic pressure through the formation of a powerful international coalition that compels the Zionist regime to cease genocide immediately, abandon its expansionist, separatist, and occupationist projects.

Legal and Humanitarian Obligations

Firm legal pursuit through all international bodies, including the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, for the trial and punishment of this criminal regime’s leaders, alongside the imposition of comprehensive military and economic sanctions, is an undeniable necessity.

In addition, the immediate and unconditional delivery of aid through a secure humanitarian corridor supervised by the United Nations and the OIC — to ensure the provision of food, medicine, and fuel to the besieged residents of Gaza — is an urgent humanitarian and religious duty.

The Islamic Republic of Iran considers this meeting an essential step for coordinating effective, deterrent, and immediate measures. Our religious and human responsibility, as representatives of Islamic states, together with our legal obligations as parties committed to the UN Charter, the Genocide Convention, and the 1949 Geneva Conventions, demand that we make serious and effective decisions to assist our brothers in Gaza and the West Bank, to halt the genocide, to prosecute and punish the criminals, and to thwart the expansionist greed of this genocidal and law-breaking regime in the Islamic world.

Any hesitation, weakness, or illusion based on deceptive promises such as the “Abraham Accords” would result in grave harm to the Islamic Ummah.

Silence and inaction in the face of the atrocities of the Zionist regime, and hesitation to confront its Nazi-like policies and actions — the policies of the “Hitler of our time” — amount not only to betrayal of the oppressed Palestinian people but also betrayal of all moral principles, the foundations of human civilization, and a grave threat to the security, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of the region’s states.

A Call for Unity

The time for slogans, statements, and expressions of condemnation has ended. The time has come for unity and solidarity — both in words and in action — across the Islamic world, so that decisive decisions may be taken, and full cooperation and coordination for their implementation strengthened, with the aim of saving the lives of the oppressed in Gaza and protecting the Islamic world.

History will judge us today. Let us prove that the Islamic Ummah, in its most painful and decisive moments, is capable of defending the oppressed and restraining the oppressor.

Preserving the Islamic world, safeguarding the security and sovereignty of the region’s countries, and achieving the sacred goal of establishing an independent Palestinian state with al-Quds al-Sharif as its capital, all depend on the brave and decisive decision that the OIC will adopt in confronting the existential threat of this occupying and genocidal regime.