Iran has vowed to support Hamas in its fight against Israel following the US announcement recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state last week.
According to a report by the Times of Israel published Tuesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani last week spoke on the phone with Hamas and the two discussed the US announcement.
In addition, the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Qassem Soleimani spoke with several Hamas leaders and gave them assurances that Iran would support them in their “resistance” to the Jewish state.
Rouhani was quoted on the Iranian government’s website as telling Haniyeh, “The oppressed people of Palestine and Islamic ummah (community) will undoubtedly defeat the US-Israeli plan with their unity and resistance.”
The Iranian president said Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital “revealed the nature of the US and Zionist regime to the world and showed that they do not want to officially recognize the Palestinian people’s rights at all,” according to a report published online by Iranian network Press TV.
Haniyeh told Rouhani in response that Palestinians will never allow the US plan to go ahead and that a new Palestinian intifada was beginning.
Hamas has been calling for a new intifada since the day of Trump’s announcement. Palestinian riots since then have been relatively low-key with a small turnout.
There have been riots in the West Bank as well as along the Gaza border fence. Most Palestinians wounded in the clashes were lightly injured by non-lethal crowd dispersal means.
However, four people were killed in Gaza during clashes with IDF soldiers or in retaliatory strikes following rocket attacks.
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