TEHRAN, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Iran voiced opposition to a U.S.- mediated resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the Kayhan International daily reported on Monday.
"Tehran along with (some) Palestinian groups express their rejection of the proposed plan and they are certain that the occupying Zionist regime (of Israel) will not agree to withdraw from the occupied lands," Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Araqchi was quoted as saying.
"Past experience shows that the Zionist regime is basically not ready to pay the price for peace," he added.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced Friday that the negotiators from Israel and Palestine had agreed to prepare the ground for the resumption of direct peace talks which have been stalled since late 2010.
The last round of talks between Israel and the Palestinians failed to reach an agreement almost three years ago due to Israel' s expansion of settlement buildings in the occupied lands.
Iran rules out a two-state solution and has its own vision of how to resolve the six-decade-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
"The end of occupation ..., the return of all (Palestinian) refugees to their ancestral land and the creation of an integrated Palestine (state) with al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital will be the ultimate resolution to the issue," said Araqchi.
Also, Iran's Majlis (parliament) Speaker Ali Larijani urged Palestinian groups to "keep a watchful eye on plots hatched by the United States and certain Western states" under the guise of a new Middle East "peace" plan, according to the conservative Kayhan International.
"The international brokers have repeatedly contacted certain elements in Palestine and Arab states as well as elements of the Zionist regime to resume reconciliation talks, while they haven't even made a mention of a halt to the settlement expansion in their proposal," Larijani said, addressing a session of the parliament on Sunday.
He called on the Palestinian resistance groups, especially Hamas and Islamic Jihad, to remain vigilant against such "plots", said the paper.
Iran has repeatedly warned that Israel is not after peace but is only interested in creating tensions and damaging the axis of resistance, the parliament speaker was quoted as saying.
By fueling tensions in Egypt and Syria, the West and its allies are only catering to the interests of the Zionist regime, he added.
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