On Sunday, June 22, Abdelilah Benkirane led the regional congress of the Justice and Development Party (PJD) in Fès-Meknès. During his speech, the secretary-general reaffirmed his party's condemnation of the Israeli strikes on Iran. «I stand with Morocco against Iran when the conflict directly involves our country, and I support Morocco against any state that seeks to confront it», he declared. Defending his position, Benkirane recalled instructing PJD members not to join the early demonstrations of the February 20 Movement in 2011, during the Arab Spring. «The one who opposed those protests from the very beginning was me, Abdelilah Benkirane. It's time to stop the one-upmanship», he added. He clarified that his support for Iran stems from religious considerations: «Today, Iran is not confronting Morocco but Israel, which is backed by the United States». Benkirane stressed that Iran supports the Palestinians in their struggle against Israeli aggression. As a reminder, on November 23, 2024, Benkirane praised «the axis of resistance, the only force that truly supports the Palestinians and has paid a high price for it, namely the Shia axis, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iran». In his speech, however, he avoided any reference to Iran's backing of the Polisario or its recognition of the so-called «SADR». Just hours after the June 13 Israeli strikes on targets in Iran, the PJD's general secretariat condemned the attacks, describing them as a «Zionist terrorist aggression against the Iranian people» and a «violation of Iran's territory and sovereignty». PJD stated that «the targeting of infrastructure and the assassination of Iranian leaders» represented a «flagrant breach of international laws and conventions, amid reprehensible international silence and the full complicity of the United States».
