Hamas, Iran Agree to Continue Cooperation

 FM Amir-Abdollahian Meets Haniyeh

DOHA (KI) -- Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh met with Iran’s foreign minister on Saturday in Qatar, where they discussed the Palestinian movement group’s operation inside Occupied Palestine “and agreed to continue cooperation” to achieve the group’s goals, Hamas said in a statement.

During their meeting, Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian praised the operation as a “historic victory” that had dealt a setback to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.
The Islamic Republic, he said, will never renounce its principles and values in supporting the Palestinian nation. He said Palestine remains the most important issue of the Muslim world.
“Supporting Palestine is a religious, humanitarian and moral duty, and today, all Muslims, the faithful and freedom-loving people should stand by Palestine and its oppressed people more than ever,” he said.
The minister said Operation Al-Aqsa Flood showed that Palestine is alive contrary to what some people wrongly believe, and that the trend of normalization of ties with Israel by some countries cannot sap the Palestinian nation’s iron will to seek the restoration of their natural, human and legal rights.
Amir-Abdollahian further said the extent of Zionists’ war crimes against the people of Gaza is great because the blow they have received from the Palestinian nation has been unprecedented.”
Haniyeh said the Zionist enemy has committed numerous crimes against the oppressed Palestinian nation for decades, and desecrated Al-Aqsa Mosque on numerous occasions in recent months.
Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, he said, was a natural reaction to these acts and insults.
Amir-Abdollahian was in Doha after visiting Lebanon, Syria and Iraq in recent days. He met in Beirut last week with Hezbollah resistance chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
According to an Axios report Saturday, Amir-Abdollahian has warned Israel through the UN that Iran will intervene if the occupying regime does not call off its looming ground incursion into Gaza.
On Sunday, Amir-Abdollahian met Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
“In case Israel continues attacking the defenseless people of Gaza, there will be no guarantee that the situation would remain under control and the conflict would not spill over,” Amir-Abdollahian said.
Amir-Abdollahian also censured Washington for its contradictory approach, saying the United States invites others to exercise self-restraint but at the same time evades commitment and ramps up its all-out support for Israel.
The Iranian minister urged Muslim countries to work for an end to the “war crimes committed by the apartheid Zionist regime.”
He reiterated the importance of an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) under the current circumstances.
For his part, the Qatari emir expressed concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza and said Qatar’s stance on the Palestinian issue would never change as it prioritizes an end to the crimes of Israel in the besieged enclave.
In a meeting with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, the Iranian minister said, “If the Zionist regime’s crimes against the people and citizens of Palestine continue, nobody can guarantee that conditions in the region will remain the same.”
Amir-Abdollahian called the Israeli regime’s daily massacre of hundreds of Palestinians intolerable.
“It is not tolerable that the Zionist regime kills hundreds of Palestinians every day and this war crime as well as the blockade of Gaza and blocking access to water and food and medicines must come to an end,” he said.
Slamming the United States’ approach to Israel’s crimes in Gaza, Amir-Abdollahian said, “While a great number of Palestinians are being killed by the Zionist regime on a daily basis, the U.S. administration calls on others to show self-restraint. At the same time, it has increased its all-out military support for the criminal Zionist regime.”
He also expressed gratitude to Doha for its supportive position concerning Palestine amid the current developments.
The Qatari minister said the dire situation in Gaza is a cause for concern.
He said Palestine is the most pressing issue for the entire Muslim world, adding that regional countries are united in their support for the Palestinian people amid the Israeli atrocities.