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Hamas’ leader boasted about “expanding its power” in the West Bank with the assistance of Iran during a delegation to Tehran this week at the invitation of the Iranian leadership. The delegation held talks with government officials including Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi.
After a meeting on Tuesday between President Raisi and Ismail Haniyeh, Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, The President told the Iranian States’ IRNA News that “resistance is the only way to deal with the [Zionist] regime”. He said that “the Zionist regime is not only an enemy of the Palestinians, it is a threat to all Muslims” and railed against normalisation.
Haniyeh declared that the “Resistance Front is today expanding its power not only in the Gaza Strip, but also in the occupied West Bank and in the lands occupied since 1948”. He also thanked Iran for “strengthening unity and cooperation in the Islamic world and the Palestinian resistance”.
Haniyeh also met with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, to plan how to “cause the greatest damage to the Zionist enemy and its supporters”. The Hamas delegation coincided with a delegation of Palestinian Islamic Jihad who arrived in Tehran a week earlier.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan also made a visit to Tehran on Saturday to improve diplomatic relations, the first trip by a Saudi official in seven years. Speaking of the visit to IRNA News, President Raisi said: “only the enemies of Islam, led by the Zionist regime, are upset with the progress in bilateral and regional cooperation between Iran and Saudi Arabia”.
