Iran |
Palestine |
The Islamic Republic of Iran officially endorses the creation of a Palestinian state, regarding Israel as Palestine under occupation by the "Zionist regime". Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, rejects a Two state solution and stated that Palestine is inseparable, while Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for a free referendum for the entire Palestinian population, including Arab citizens of Israel, to determine the type of government in the future Palestinian state, while reiterating that establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel would "never mean an endorsement of the Israeli occupation".[1]
Prior to the 1979 Iranian revolution, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) held close ties with Iranian opposition groups. Following the revolution, Iran ended its alliance with Israel and started supporting the Palestinians, symbolized by turning over the Israeli embassy in Tehran to the Palestine Liberation Organization.[2]
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Before the Iranian revolution, there was no Palestinian embassy in Iran. According to the Iranian academic and political analyst Hooshang Amirahmadi, the Shah was much more interested in maintaining good relations with Israel and the United States, than in the Palestinians or in the Arab-Israeli peace process.[3]
The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) held close ties with the Iranian opposition, training Iranian dissidents trained at PLO camps in Lebanon. [2]
The PLO backed the 1979 revolution, and several days after the revolution, PLO chief Yasser Arafat led a Palestinian delegation to Iran. The Iranian Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan hosted an official welcome ceremony for Arafat, where the keys to the former Israeli embassy were symbolically handed over to the PLO.[2]
Ayatollah Khomeini, however, criticized the PLO for its nationalist, pan-Arab agenda, asking Arafat to model the PLO on the principles of the Islamic revolution, a request which was declined by Arafat.[2]
The Iran-PLO relations deteriorated further when Arafat supported Iraq during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. Iran condemned Arafat in 1988, after he recognized Israel, renounced terrorism, and called for peace talks with Israel. In 1989, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei named Arafat a “traitor and an idiot”. The PLO maintained diplomatic relations with Tehran, but Iran did not aid the PLO again until 2000.[2]
After the eruption of the second Palestinian intifada, in September 2000 after the collapse of Middle East peace talks at Camp David, Arafat released imprisoned Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, a decision that restored the relations between Iran and the Palestinian National Authority. The renewed support became evident when Israeli commandos captured the Karine A in 2002, a ship carrying 50 tons of advanced weaponry from Iran to Gaza.[2]
Hamas is a militant and political organization currently in power in the Gaza Strip. Hamas does not recognize the State of Israel, and by its Covenant, was committed to the destruction of Israel by Jihad,[4] However it now states that it will accept a ceasefire with Israel if Israel ends its blockade.[5] Iran supplies political support and weapons to Hamas.[6] According to Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority, "Hamas is funded by Iran. It claims it is financed by donations, but the donations are nothing like what it receives from Iran.[7][8]
Aid to Hamas increased after Arafat’s death in 2004 and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. Following the Hamas victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections, foreign aid dried up, leading Tehran to send significant financial aid to support the nearly bankrupt, Hamas led Palestinian National Authority.[2]
Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh has said of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that "The one who does not represent the Iranian people, who falsified election results, who oppressed the Iranian people and stole authority has no right to speak about Palestine, its president or its representatives".[9]
In September 2010, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the peace talks in Washington would not achieve their goals, because Hamas is the true representative of the Palestinian people, among other reasons. PA officials responded to these Iranian statements with "unprecedented ferocity". Omar Al-Ghoul replied that the time had come to put an end to Iran's "regime of death and destruction." Fatah spokesman Osama Al-Qawasmi said that Iran is striving to divide Palestine, to spark civil wars and sectarian and ethnic strife in numerous Arab regions, and therefore it cannot benefit the Palestinian people.[10]
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