Tehran: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad renewed
Iran's support for the Palestinian "resistance" in a meeting
on Sunday with the exiled leader of the Palestinian Islamist
movement Hamas, Khaled Meshaal.
"The Iranian nation and government will always stand by
the resistance and the oppressed Palestinian people," he told
Meshaal, state television reported.
Ahmadinejad predicted that "the fall of the global
arrogance and the Zionist regime will be quick and
simultaneous," using the Islamic republic's terms for the
United States and Israel.
Meshaal, who arrived in Tehran earlier the same day,
vowed that "Hamas, the resistance and Palestinians will
continue to battle the global arrogance until
final victory."
Iran has been a staunch supporter of Hamas since the
movement won Palestinian legislative elections in 2006,
although Tehran says its aid does not extend to military arms
and training, as Israel has alleged.
Hardliner Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, has drawn international
condemnation with his constant verbal assaults on Israel,
which he says is doomed to disappear, and by branding the
Holocaust a "myth."
The Islamic republic does not recognise the Jewish state.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, December 13, 2009, 22:05