“Hamas delivered knockout to Zionist Israeli regime”

Ayatollah Khamenei, speaking to a group of Iranian athletes and Olympic and Paralympic champions, said Hamas, as a fighter resistance group and not a government or a country with full facilities, managed to inflicted the blow to the Zionist Israeli regime with all the military equipment, reported Taqrib News Agency (TNA).

The Leader referred to the recent developments in Gaza and said Zionist Israelis have not managed to get rid of the pressure and shame that this failure has brought to it and condemned the Israeli regime for performing its show of power in Gaza hospitals, schools and on the civilians.

Ayatollah Khamenei added,” There is no move more shameless than what the Israeli regime did and its heavy loss would not be recovered with bombardment campaign.”

The Leader hailed the pro-Palestine athletes and appreciated the national teams that wore Keffiyeh (Palestinian traditional headdress) to the field in a show of solidarity with the Palestinians.

Ayatollah Khamenei also hailed the athletes that donated their medal to Palestinian children in Gaza and martyrs of the hospital attack as well as the athletes who withdrew from competition with Israeli rivals.

The Leader said,” The decency of their act is now understood by all. Such moves illustrate the remarkable, self-confident and rational aspect of the Iranian nation to hundreds of millions of audiences. This introduces the Iranian nation as it is part of Iran’s national capabilities.”

Ayatollah Khamenei added,” Now the world understands why Iranian athletes refrain from competing with Israeli rivals who are representatives of a criminal state.”

The Leader of Islamic Revolution criticized the dual approach of the international organizations regarding different developments and said,” Sports is not an arena for diplomatic affairs but when they need to politized it, they do it in the worst possible way when they deprive one country from all competitions only because of a war while the same decision makers turn a blind eye on 5,000 Palestinian children killed in Gaza. Should not sports be politicized there too?”

Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks in an address to a group of Iranian athletes and participants in 2023 Asian Para Games held in Hangzhou, China and also a number of former athletes and pioneer sportsmen on Wednesday morning.

With total of 131 medals, Iran stood second, achieving the best ever ranking in Asian Para Games and won 54 medals to finish seventh in 19^th Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China.