Hamas Official Says a ‘New Chapter’ Open with Iran
December 19, 2014Ali Baraka, Hamas’s representative in Lebanon, said Friday that a recent visit by a Hamas delegation to Iran had “opened a new chapter” in relations between Tehran and the terror group.
“[Tehran] has pledged to continue supporting the [Palestinian] resistance,” Baraka told the Turkish Anadolu Agency.
“Hamas welcomes the support of any Arab or Muslim state,” Baraka added. “But unfortunately, the Arabs are just spectators… to the systematic Judaization of Jerusalem by Israel and the expansion of illegal settlements.”
“We have not received responses from a number of Arab countries that we had asked to support us and our people [against Israeli aggression],” he charged, adding, “This has forced us to seek support from other [Muslim] nations such as Iran.”
Nevertheless, Baraka stressed that Hamas was keen on maintaining good relations with Arab countries – along with Turkey and Iran – “in order to safeguard the resistance”.
Iran was once a stronger supporter of Hamas, but the two have been at odds over the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. As a result of Hamas’ refusal to support Assad in the uprising, an angry Iran reportedly stopped supplying the terror group with weapons.
Nevertheless, the two sides have been getting closer in recent months. The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Ali Larijani, recently boasted that Iran provided Hamas with the technology it has used to rain down rockets on Israel from Gaza, and Hamas later thanked Iran for providing the group with the rockets.
Following the Hamas’s delegation visit to Tehran, some Palestinian media outlets had reported that Saudi Arabia had called certain Hamas officials to voice its displeasure with the visit.
Hamas officials, however, subsequently denied the reports, noted Anadolu.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)
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