Media: Iran’s president condemns US crackdown on pro-Palestine students

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi lashed out at the US for arresting and evicting university students who have staged pro-Palestinian demonstrations amid the Israeli regime’s brutal crimes in Gaza.

In an address at the Government College University (GCU) of Lahore in Pakistan’s Punjab on Tuesday, Raisi denounced the US and other Western governments’ hypocritical stances, according to Tasnim.

"What we see in practice is that a large number of students are expelled from the university (in the US) just for supporting the oppressed people of Gaza. Is this called freedom of thought!?" he said.

The Iranian president decried the Westerners’ “untrue” claim of defending human rights and freedom of thought, saying, "America and the West's support for the killing and wounding of more than 100,000 Palestinians in the usurped land of Gaza shows the fact that today the biggest violators of human rights are Americans and Westerners, and their claim to defend human rights is also absurd."

“We have no doubt that the resistance of the heroic nation of Palestine will liberate Gaza, Palestine and the Holy Quds. We have no doubt that the hatred that has been created in the Islamic world and the world of humanity towards the Zionists and Americans will become the revenge of the nations and the end of the Zionist regime and the end of this child-killing regime,” the president noted, his official website reported.

"Today, the Iranian nation stands against the corruption, extravagance and oppression of the Zionist regime and will continue to do so. Both the nations of Iran and Pakistan have been the defenders of the oppressed Palestinian nation and will continue this defense with pride," Raisi underlined.

Pointing to Iran’s recent retaliatory operation against the Israeli military targets, the president said, "If the Zionist regime once again makes a mistake and invades the holy land of Iran, the situation will be different and it is not clear that there will be anything left of this regime.”

The US police have arrested dozens at Yale and NYU in recent days as pro-Palestinian student protests spread throughout the US.

More than 150 people were arrested at New York University on Monday night alone.

The arrests came days after more than 100 people, including many students, were arrested while protesting at Columbia University.

At least 34,183 Palestinians have been killed and 77,143 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, 2023.