Mahmoud al-Zahar, a co-founder and member of Palestinian resistance group Hamas, said his movement’s relations with Iran are “as close and strong as ever”.
Zahar noted that Iran was part of Islamic ummah and had never asked anything in return for its help to the Palestinian nation, ISNA reported on Wednesday.
Pointing to the recently-updated Hamas policy document, he said even though the new document accepts the idea of a “transitional” Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, this “does not mean it recognizes Israel”.
In its new document, Hamas dropped its longstanding call for Israel’s destruction, but said it backed “armed struggle” against it.
The document led to some speculations that the group might have changed its stance toward Israel, with some political analysts calling it a step in the wrong direction.
Iran has always called for the continuation of resistance against the occupying regime, dismissing the so-called “two-state solution” that envisages a Palestinian state alongside Israel as “doomed”.
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