According to IRNA, the Foreign Ministry Spokesman, while congratulating and condoling the martyrdom of Afif, hailed him as the voice of the Lebanese nation and a symbol in the mission of raising awareness and enlightening public opinion.
Esmail Baghaei underlined that Afif was against the oppression by the occupying and racist Zionist regime that he fought until the last moment of his blessed life and tried to bring the voice of the oppressed people of Lebanon and Palestine to the ears of the world.
While calling the killing an aggressive and terrorist act, Baghaei said that this is yet another sign of the regime’s inhuman nature and an attempt to silence those exposing its crimes in Palestine and Lebanon.
Referring to the killing of more than 200 journalists and media personnel in the last one year by the regime, the Iranian spokesman described those assassinations as part of the regime’s agenda to advance its genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, while at the same time, intimidating the media and forcing them to stop reporting on those crimes.
Baghaei demanded serious actions from the United Nations and the International Court of Justice against the Israeli regime for killing journalists and members of the media in defiance of international humanitarian laws, especially the Geneva Conventions.
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