Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei predicted Monday that it would soon be possible for the Palestinians to establish “a government in Tel Aviv”.
According to the ayatollah, whose words at the meeting were later posted, “Palestine will strongly persist, and by the grace of God, the Palestinian nation’s ultimate victory will come true in the near future”; however, he assumed that in recent years, “the victory of the Palestinian people has not meant being able to establish a government in Tel Aviv”, adding that “that will come true by God’s help”.
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Meanwhile, it is not immediately clear why Khamenei brought up Tel Aviv, when the Israeli government is based in Jerusalem, which many on the international arena refuse to recognize as the Israeli capital.
“During the two last wars against the Resistance groups, the Zionist regime begged for ceasefire after 22 days in one case and after 8 days in another instance; in the most recent conflict, the Zionist regime asked for ceasefire after only 48 hours”, he said. “This means the Zionist Regime has been brought to its knees”. He went on to say that Palestinians’ “consecutive victories in recent years” lie in resistance.
Syria-based Al Nakhala, who was born in Gaza in 1953, was named the first new leader of the Palestinian Jihad movement (PIJ) in the last 20 years and is said to be close to Iran. The group, meanwhile, is considered to be a terrorist organization by the US and the EU, and the former branded Nakhala himself “a global terrorist” in 2014.
Earlier Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi remarked that Israel, the US and unnamed “regional powers” were providing support for terrorist groups that carry out deadly attacks in Iran, referring in particular to recent car bombings.
The UN General Assembly voted in early December in favour of a resolution demanding that the Israeli-Palestine standoff be brought to an end. The adoption of the resolution came after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week urged Israel and Palestine to peacefully resolve their conflict by supporting the two-state solution plan that envisages an independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, west of the Jordan River.
Palestinians have been in a row with the Israeli authorities for the past several decades. Most recently, in November, at least 40 Palestinians sustained injuries in clashes with Israeli troops in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip border. Since 1967, Israel has been in control of part of the territory of West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, and refuses to recognize Palestine as an independent political and diplomatic state, in common with other countries, like the US.