Nour Abu Aisha
22 July 2019•Update: 23 July 2019
TEHRAN
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with a delegation from Palestinian group Hamas in Tehran on Monday, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.
"Hamas stands at the core of Palestine’s movement, just as Palestine stands at the core of the world of Islam’s movement,” Fars quoted Khamenei as saying during the meeting.
"We believe that the Palestinian cause will definitely end to the benefit of the people of Palestine and the world of Islam," he said.
Commenting on the U.S. backchannel peace plan known as "deal of the century", Khamenei said, "confronting the deal of the century requires promotional, cultural, and intellectual efforts and the other method is to make the Palestinians feel advancement.”
“Today, Palestinians are equipped with precise missiles rather than stones and this means the feeling of advancement," he said.
During the meeting, Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri handed over a message from Hamas political chief Ismail Hanieyh to the Iranian leader.
Khamenei, according to Fars, appreciated Haniyeh’s “important and welcoming positions in the letter".
No further details were available about the content of Haniyeh’s letter.
There was no comment from Hamas on the visit.
Ties between Hamas and Tehran has witnessed a kind of apathy, following the eruption of the conflict in Syria in 2011. While Tehran has chosen to support the Bashar al-Assad regime, Hamas decided to support the uprising against it.
In 2017, however, Hamas officials said relations with Iran had been resumed as they were before.
