Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran (in Arabic) — 1730 GMT

His Eminence Shaykh Sa’id Sha’ban, leader of Lebanon’s Islamic Unification Movement (IUM), has described the U.S. military intervention in Somalia as political idiocy. In his Friday sermon during prayers held in Tripoli, north Lebanon, today, Shaykh Sha’ban praised the Somali Muslim people’s steadfastness against the U.S. intervention. He remarked:

“The Somali people have discredited the myth of U.S. invincibility.”

In another part of his sermon, Shaykh Sa’id Sha’ban condemned Yasir ‘Arafat’s bargaining with the Zionist enemy, declaring:

“By signing the Gaza-Jericho agreement, ‘Arafat has accepted the role of defending Zionist interests. He is now preparing to slaughter the Islamists.”

Shaykh Sha’ban added:

“Anyone who backs ‘Arafat or even humors him will be his associate in the crime of selling off Palestine.”

In conclusion, the leader of the Islamic Unification Movement emphasized the need to extend full support for the Islamic intifada in occupied Palestine, the resistance forces in south Lebanon, and the Muslim Somali people’s struggle.

He called for forming a broad-based Islamic front in Asia and Africa to confront U.S. and Zionist conspiracies.

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