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Tehran, May 7, IRNA -- Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi here Monday evening welcomed Palestinian chairman Yasser Arafat's call for an urgent meeting of the OIC, while taking a broadside at the hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "peace plan".
"Sharon is notorious and guilty to the extent that one cannot pay any attention to his proposals," he told IRNA while visiting a group of injured Palestinians who are receiving treatment at a Tehran hospital.
"All know that Sharon's proposal is only intended to kill time and delay any steps since he has so far resisted against any demands for (Israeli) withdrawal from the occupied territories and end to violence in Palestine," Kharrazi added.
The racist Israeli prime minister has been reported as saying that he was ready to hold a peace summit with "moderate Arabs" without any preconditions.
He is expected to present what he has dubbed "the most serious" Middle East peace plan ever when he meets Tuesday with US President George W. Bush in Washington.
The proposal comes amid Arafat's call on Qatar, which currently chairs the Organization of the Islamic Conference, to hold an urgent meeting of the group.
"Holding this conference in fact follows in the footsteps of the public opinion of the Islamic world who is the main and serious supporter of the Palestinians," Kharrazi said.
"There has to be made use of any possibility which indicates the Islamic world's unity and the stances of the Islamic countries in this sensitive juncture will definitely help with averting the Palestinian crisis," he added.
Iran on Tuesday announced that Arafat who "is the target of attacks by the Zionist regime, which shamefully threatens to depose or even assassinate him" must be supported and "no measure should be taken to weaken Arafat".
The Islamic Republic does not recognize the Zionist regime. Iran instead politically and morally supports freedom-seeking struggles against Israeli occupation.
So far 350 Palestinians, who had sustained injuries during over 19 months of popular uprising (Intifada) against the racist Israel occupation, have received medical treatment in Iran, an official in charge of coordinating Iranian help to the struggle said recently.
Those injured were flown into the Islamic Republic in 32 groups, the head of cultural committee and office to coordinate assistance to the Palestinian Intifada in Iran, Ramezan Sharif told IRNA.
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