Iran Prez Raisi calls US 'primary instigator' in Gaza war; urges Muslim countries send weapons to Palestinian fighters

He called for the imposition of sanctions on Israel, targeting both oil and goods, in response to its military operations in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas.

Raisi, addressing an emergency joint Arab-Islamic Summit in Saudi Arabia focusing on the situation in Gaza, accused the US of providing military support to Israel.

He claimed that Israel had dropped bombs on the besieged enclave equivalent to "seven atomic bombs."

"The US government is the main perpetrator and accomplice to this crime. Israel is the illegitimate child of America. It is America that has preferred supporting it over the sacred lives of thousands of oppressed Palestinian children. By immediately forming its security cabinet in the occupied territories, America encouraged the Zionist regime to carry out criminal operations against the helpless people of Gaza and called it legitimate defence," he was quoted by news agency ANI as saying.

"The events in the Gaza Strip are a confrontation between the axis of honour and the axis of evil, and everyone must clarify which path they have fallen into," he said.

He said leaders from the Islamic world had gathered at the summit to "save the Palestinians".

Israel has repeatedly accused Iran of funding and supporting Hamas in its fight against its forces in Gaza.

Raisi called on Muslim-majority countries to send weapons to Palestinians fighting the Israeli armed forces.

"Muslim countries should arm the Palestinian people. Resistance is the only answer to Israeli violence. Countries around the world, including Muslim ones, should ensure the protection of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories," he said at the Summit in Riyadh, news agency Sputnik reported.

Raisi, who is in Riyadh for what is the first Saudi trip of a sitting Iranian president in more than a decade, also called for "an end to trade and cooperation between Muslim countries and the Zionist formation" as well as for a boycott of Israeli-made goods.