Khamenei urges Muslim world to boycott Israeli products, cut ties

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Muslim states to cease oil and food exports to Israel, demanding an end to its bombardment of the Gaza Strip, state media reported.

"The bombings on Gaza must stop immediately ... the path of oil and food exports to the Zionist regime should be stopped," Khamenei told a group of students in Tehran, according to Iranian state media.

Backing the Palestinian cause has been a political pillar of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and a way in which its Shi'ite Muslim theocracy has fashioned Iran as a leader in the Muslim world.

Khamenei, Iran's top authority, said the United States was complicit in Israel's "recent crimes against Palestinians". "The Islamic world should not forget that in the crucial issue of Gaza, those standing against the oppressed Palestinian nation were the United States, France and Britain," Khamenei said to chants of "Death to Israel" and "Death to America".

"One of the shameless acts of the West is accusing Palestinian fighters of terrorism," Khamenei said.