The
Israeli attack on the Gaza-bound flotilla sounded "the death knell of the Zionist regime,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told an
enthusiastic crowd at Istanbul's Abou Ayyoub Ansari Mosque on Tuesday.
He
accused Israel of “unmatched crimes in the
course of sixty some years of its history, that have been unprecedented
in the history of mankind, the last of which has been invading the Gaza
Peace Flotilla,”
IRNA
reported, added that the crowd responded with "Allahu akbar"
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was in Turkey for the
summit of a 20-member group of Asian countries – CICA – at which Turkey
intended to propose a resolution condemning Israel's flotilla raid.
The Iranian president said the two nations were the “standard bearers of humanity and moralities” emphasizing, “everyone should know that the relations between the two countries are friendly, brotherly and deep rooted today and that the two countries would stand side by side till the end of the line,” IRNA reported.
On Monday,
Israeli officials said the two ships the Iranian Red Crescent
had announced it would be sending to Gaza would not be allowed to reach
their destination.
“If we didn’t let an Irish ship reach Gaza, we are certainly not going
to let Iranian ships pass,” one diplomatic official said.