By Kayhan Life Staff
Iran has helped armed Palestinian groups build rockets, bombs, and anti-tank missiles, according to Ziyad al-Nakhalah, the Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement of Palestine (PIJ).
Mr. al-Nakhalah, who recently held talks with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made the comments in an interview with the Tehran-based Arabic-language Al-Vefagh newspaper on July 2.
“After the signing of the Oslo Accord, Palestinians realized that it was useless to negotiate with the Zionists,” al-Nakhalah said. “The resistance groups were strengthened thanks to the Islamic Republic, which [received] them with open arms and shared its capabilities with them. The vital transfer of those capabilities enabled the resistance to build rockets, anti-armored vehicle weapons, and bombs.”
The Oslo-I and Oslo-II Accords, signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Washington D.C. in 1993 and Taba, Egypt, in 1995, aimed at achieving peace under UN Resolutions 242 and 338, to “fulfill the rights of Palestinian people to self-determination.”
“The esteemed leader [Khamenei] identified a sensitive place to confront the enemy when he called for arming the West Bank,” al-Nakhalah noted. “Although we knew the significance of the West Bank, this request profoundly affected the brothers involved in this area and the resistance forces. It prompted everyone to unite in planning and realizing this goal.”
Al-Nakhalah described the rocket attacks against Israel from southern Lebanon that killed three Israeli soldiers on the Egyptian border as a “natural response to the Zionist regime’s crimes and murders, which is expected from any Arab and Muslim defending Palestine.”
[aesop_image img=”https://kayhanlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2023-06-21T190222Z_1135694197_RC2UN1ACO0AU_RTRMADP_3_IRAN-PALESTINE-HAMAS.jpg” panorama=”off” credit=”Ali Khamenei meets with Palestinian group Hamas’ top leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran, Iran June 21, 2023. ” align=”center” lightbox=”on” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]
Al-Nakhalah said that the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Qods Force (IRGC-QF), Brigadier-General Esmail Ghaani, continued his predecessor, the late Lieutenant-General Ghasem Soleimani’s policies.
“Haj Esmail and Haj Ghasem represent Iran and execute its plans,” Al-Nakhalah added. “The entire Iranian nation supports the resistance.”
General Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone attack on Baghdad International Airport on Jan. 3, 2020.
“Some of the help goes to the families of the martyrs and those captured. They are humanitarian aid,” Al-Nakhalah said in another part of the interview with Al-Vefagh. “The rest of the help we receive from Iran is to boost our military capabilities.”
“I want to put people’s minds at ease so they do not think that the Palestinian people have taken all of the Islamic Republic’s money,” Al-Nakhalah noted. “Helping the families of the martyrs and the captured is a humanitarian act. Naturally, it costs a lot to provide military help and supply weapons to Gaza and the West Bank.”
“Some say Iran has been giving hundreds of millions of dollars monthly,” Al-Nakhalah added. “I tell you the resistance was created with limited resources, and we should not exaggerate the [amount] of help.”
“In his meeting with the secretary-general of the Islamic Jihad, Ali Khamenei reiterated the Islamic Republic’s continued support for Palestinian groups,” a tweet by Kayhan London said on June 14.
The tweet included a photograph of the meeting between Khamenei and Al-Nakhalah.
Iran Leader Urges Muslim States to Back Palestinians Militarily, Financially
During a meeting with PIJ commanders on June 14, Ali Khamenei praised the rocket attacks on Israel.
“The conditions for Israel have changed in the last 70 years. Its leaders are justifiably worried that the regime may not reach 80,” Khamenei said. “Islamic Jihad and fighting groups are the principal force that will bring Israel down to its knees.”
The blatant admission of receiving financial and military help from the Islamic Republic and the IRGC confirms what the Iranian people have known and objected to for years and highlights one cause of the mass protests in the country in recent years.
“Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, we give our lives for Iran,” and “Abandon Palestine, solve our problems instead” are two slogans shouted across Iran during the recent nationwide protests.
