Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) on Saturday slammed efforts to promote a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a few days after a UN conference co-chaired by Saudi Arabia pushed for the solution.
“These satanic efforts are prescribing a two-state solution to end the Palestinian issue,” the IRGC said in a statement, marking the first anniversary of the Israeli killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
“But the resistance remains firm on the path of martyr Haniyeh and others.”
The Guards said the path forward lies not in political compromise but in continued resistance. Quoting a Hamas slogan attributed to Haniyeh, the statement said: “We do not recognize Israel—never, never, never.”
A High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution took place at the United Nations in New York from July 28-30, 2025.
The conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, aimed to revitalize efforts towards a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, with a focus on achieving a just and lasting peace.
Traditionally, Iran has advocated for the annihilation of Israel, rejecting a two-state solution that would create an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in 2015 that Israel must be destroyed within 25 years.
Gaza war
The IRGC's statement described the war in Gaza as a genocide carried out with the broader aim of seizing strategic and resource-rich regions of the Islamic world.
“Those who engineered the genocide in Gaza are undoubtedly pursuing larger goals—the swallowing of the Muslim world’s rich and strategic regions,” it said.
“But with God’s help, the breaking of global silence and the surge of anti-Zionist international protest will shatter the hopes and ambitions of the Zionist-American criminal band, which must now await the unmasking of its hidden fate.”
It also condemned the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran, which occurred while he was in the city for Iran’s presidential inauguration.
The IRGC credited continued Palestinian resistance to what it called the legacy of Haniyeh and other slain leaders of the anti-Israel struggle.
“The Aqsa Storm was not a passing event but a strategic doctrine sealed by the blood of martyrs,” it said, referencing the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
Since the October 7 attacks which saw at least 1,200 people killed and more than 250 more taken hostage by the militant group, Israel’s military campaign has killed over 53,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health statistics.
The Israeli military says at least 20,000 of those are militants.
Accusing Israel of using starvation and siege as instruments of war, the IRGC called on international organizations to recognize such tactics as war crimes and to impose serious sanctions on the Israeli government.
“The deliberate creation of famine is a recognized crime against humanity,” the statement said.
The IRGC, a powerful parallel military in Iran with extensive economic and intelligence roles, was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 2019 under President Donald Trump. Washington and Ottawa have called on European allies to follow suit.
