What’s Behind Palestinian Resistance Leaders’ Tehran Visit?

Upon his arrival, Haniyeh met with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and then held a meeting with Iran's Supreme Leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei as the most important part of his Tehran visit. 

In this friendly meeting, the leader praised the "unique" resistance of the people and resistance forces in Gaza, adding that this war has made the Palestinian cause the top issue of the world. He described drawing the world and Muslim public, especially the Arab world, support to Palestine in general and Gaza in particular as important, and held that the "media measures of the Palestinian resistance have so far been very good and ahead of the Israeli regime, and they need to do more."

In this meeting, Ismail Haniyeh assured the Leader that the Palestinians will not let Israel "achieve one bit of its goals." 

In his meeting with Amir-Abdollahian, Haniyeh mentioned that Israel had three basic goals, which are destruction of Hamas and the resistance, release of the Zionist prisoners, and relocation of the people of the Gaza Strip to the Sinai desert, which really means changing the political, security and demographic realities of the Gaza Strip. In order to achieve their goals, the Zionists took various and brutal actions and crimes, including the mass killing of citizens, women and children, extensive and organized destruction, complete military siege, and starving the people of the Gaza, which left 100,000 people dead, wounded, missing and disabled. The attacks also destroyed 60 percent of Gaza and displaced 1.5 million. 

"But we can say with certainty that the enemy has failed to realize any of its stated goals despite all of these crimes, and now signs of enemy’s defeat at political, ground, and international levels emerge one after another," he said. 

Another important part of Palestinian delegation's visit was the meeting of al-Nakhalah with the Leader on Thursday. 

"What is going on in Gaza today is actually a repetition of the Karbala incident, and despite all the hardships and conspiracies, the people of Gaza, along with the resistance forces, have been able to defeat the plan of the United States and the Zionist regime and their supporters to destroy the resistance. There is complete coordination between the resistance forces, especially Hamas and Islamic Jihad," al-Nakhalah told the Leader. 

The surprise visit of the Palestinian delegation less than a full day after the UNSC Gaza resolution drew focus of regional and international media which described it as an indication of unwavering and unceasing support to Gaza of Tehran as the leader of the Axis of Resistance in the region. 

The resolution was passed with 14 affirmative votes and a US abstention. The US decline to veto the resolution infuriated the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu who canceled a planned Israeli delegation's visit to Washington in protest. 

Palestine has no refuge other than Iran 

Regarding the goals and significance of the visit of Palestinian resistance leaders, political expert Sayyed Hadi Afghahi told Alwaght that in first place, the visit and meeting with the Leader was important in terms of timing and security conditions. He added that we have to also go beyond the sensitivity of the visit and shed light on the strategic and decisive issues between the Palestinian delegation and the Leader. The issues discussed in the meeting included the situation in Gaza and the battleground between Hamas and Israel. Indeed, the Leader made directions regarding the all-out support from Palestinian resistance factions. 

The Iranian political expert also pointed to the voids in the UNSC resolution. 

"The recent resolution has voids. It is not under the Chapter 7 and so is non-binding, and therefore, the Israeli regime is capable of defying it. As they said, they will not commit to this resolution, and a day after it was passed, they launched fatal attacks on Gaza. The interesting point is that simultaneous with the abstention which was a demonstrative move to show alignment with the global anti-Israeli consensus, the American Defense Secretary met Israeli defense minister and called for more weapon shipments to Tel Aviv," Afghahi added. 

Afghahi commented on the US motivation for abstention while it in all previous motions vetoed the resolutions calling for Gaza ceasefire. He held that the upcoming presidential election and the tough race between Biden and Trump is not without influence in the abstention, and even now there are opponents to Biden’s candidacy. The consistent protests in the US in support of Gaza and against the American policies, as well as the international pressures, have been effective in this largely token move. The international organizations have always condemned the US for its warlike policies. 

This West Asian affairs expert highlighted the active lobbying of the Israelis in the international institutions, adding that "we can see that the International Court of Justice is turning a blind eye to massacring of over 32,000 Palestinians and the genocide against children in Gaza. That is because the Israelis have active lobbying in this court."

He maintained that the prestige of the UN and its sub-organizations is damaged by the Gaza war catastrophes. This, he added, showed the fall of the American and Israeli narrative and globalization of the Palestinian cause. We can see that all the American media propaganda to desort and reverse the reality about Palestine is now neutralized and the international Zionism is officially disgraced and humiliated in Gaza case. 

In another part of his speech, Afghahi ruled out implementation of the UNSC resolution, saying that the international pressures were for stopping the war during the holy month of Ramadan, but Netanyahu refused. The US made a hypocritical effort, but in practice it did not support peace. The US, if wished, could stop the war or lift Gaza siege, but the problem is that it did not. Washington knows that any action, such as facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza, swaping prisoners, or stopping the war, even temporarily, will be considered an admission to victory of Hamas and realization of its political goals and a sign of the military and political defeat of Netanyahu and his cabinet. 

Asked about the message of Tehran visit of the resistance leaders less than 24 hours after the resolution, Afghahi said that it actually should be said that Hamas and other resistance groups in Palestinian have no shelter but Iran. You can see Qatar, as their seat, has close military cooperation with the US and political interactions with Israeli regime. Egypt is also an accomplice to Gaza tragedy by closing down Rafah Border Crossing. Jordan is sending forces and military equipment to the occupied territories in support of Tel Aviv. Meanwhile, the Axis of Resistance is advancing its policies. All resistance groups have joined the support to Gaza. For example, Lebanon's Hezbollah has so far seen martyrdom of over 100 of its fighters in the pro-Gaza battle on the northern front. Yemen's Ansarullah has struck several Israeli, American, and British ships and in practice controls the Red Sea in solidarity with Gaza. Iraqi resistance forces, too, have attacked Israeli defense ministry and the American command center in Syria. In fact, Hamas knows very well that Iran is the commander of the Axis of Resistance.