California's raging fires reminiscent of Israeli savagery in Gaza: Zarif

Iran's vice president for strategic affairs compared the devastation caused by the “wrath of nature” in the form of raging fires in California to the destruction brought by the “savagery of Israel” in the Gaza Strip after a 15-month Western-backed aggression on the besieged Palestinian territory.

News ID: 5739

Date: 10 January 2025 - 22:54

TABNAK, Jan 10: Mohammad Javad Zarif, the former Iranian foreign minister, expressed sympathy with Californians in a post on his X account on Friday after an ongoing series of multiple catastrophic wildfires have affected the Los Angeles metropolitan area and surrounding regions.

“Grim footage out of California is reminiscent of ravaged homes, schools and hospitals in Gaza,” Zarif wrote.

“It's only human to sympathize with Californians who've lost everything to wrath of nature—particularly as many there have stood with Gazans who lost everything to savagery of Israel.”

Since Tuesday, huge fires have swept through Southern California and decimated tens of thousands of acres of land and as many homes and businesses in the area, with local reports saying at least 10 people have so far lost their lives.

About 180,000 people have had to evacuate and another 200,000 people are under evacuation warnings.

Zarif's post comes as the Israeli regime has since October last year killed at least 46,006 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 109,378 others, in Gaza after razing almost the entire besieged territory to the ground.

Israel launched its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out a surprise operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Washington, Israel’s biggest ally and weapons supplier, has repeatedly vetoed UN Security Council resolutions on a ceasefire in Gaza and has since provided the regime with unstinting intelligence, financial and logistical support.

The outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden announced plans last Friday to propose to the Israeli regime an $8 billion arms deal as part of Washington’s unflinching support to the occupying entity’s genocidal war in the besieged Gaza Strip.