By Nabil Al Mulhem
Albawaba.com – Damascus
Head of Hamas Politburo Khaled Mishaal has praised Iran for its stand in support for the Palestinian people.
In an interview with Albawaba.com in Damascus Monday, Mishaal said that “Iran is concerned with the battle for Jerusalem at the political, media and popular levels.”
There have been reports of certain arrangements between Hamas and Iran agreed on during Mishaal’s last visit to Tehran.
Mishaal said that the spiritual leader of Iran Ayatollah Khamenei called on Monday on Iranians to donate for the Palestinian people and the families of the martyred and the detainees.
Asked about the limit of Iranian support, the Islamist leader said, “I cannot speak for others,” but made reference to Iran’s latest “positive” stands towards Syria, Saudi Arabia and their support of the resistance against the Israeli occupation in Lebanon.
He said that Iran could also support the Islamic resistance in Palestine and the Intifada. It can also be part of an Islamic-Arab front that gives the resistance “a political legitimacy,” that protects the Intifada from international pressures.
Asked about the relation between his group and the Lebanese Hizbollah, which spearheads resistance against Israel with the backing of Iran and Syria, Mishaal said both movements “have close ties, and they are fighting in one trench.” However, both work under different circumstances, and resist according to the capabilities available, “But we have a major thing in common, that is, the armed resistance option,” he said.
Commenting on the Syrian stand in the emergency Arab Summit, the top Hamas official added that Syria had more at the meeting, which ended on October 22, but there was “the difficulty of a joint stand.”
“When there is a political decision that has to be approved unanimously, the outcome is always of a reconciliatory nature,” he explained.
Mishaal said that Hamas has considerable trust in Syria and is in constant contacts with Syrian President Bashar Assad and top officials.
Regarding the expected government of national unity in Israel, and whether the Palestinians would react with more understanding between the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, the politburo chief said that the Palestinian side has not yet decisively adopted the resistance option.
He criticized the Palestinian position at Sharm el Sheikh and the Arab leaders’ meeting.
Mishaal said that many of the Arab countries’ position at the summit were more solid than that of the Palestinians, and stressed that Hamas is ready for coordination if the official position adopts a clear vision calling for the continuation and escalation of the Intifada, with no steps backward to the negotiation table.
In a seminar held in Damascus Monday, Mishaal accused the PNA and other Arab regimes of trying “to protect the Zionist entity.”
He went on to charge that the PNA killed military leaders of Hamas like Yahya Ayyash, Imad Aqel, Imad and Adel Awad. In comparison, the Lebanese government “coexisted with Hizbollah’s resistance,” which meant the movement’s back was protected.
In Jordan, although the people and the political forces support the Palestinians, there were cases when persons are arrested and then extradited to Israel the next morning.
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
