In a meeting with leaders of the terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei encouraged them to maintain their “resistance” to Israel, whose defeat is “imminent,” Iran’s semi-official PressTV news reported Monday.
“As long as there is resistance, the Zionist regime’s downfall and demise will continue,” Khamenei told PIJ Secretary-General Ziad al-Nakhala and other leaders of the terror group, promising them that their final victory over Israel was “imminent.”
Khamenei claimed that Palestinians were on the verge of bringing “the Zionist regime to its knees, a feat that Arab armies could never accomplish.”
The Iranian leader observed that previous wars between Israel and Gaza-based terrorist organizations had lasted from between 8 and 22 days, but in November a truce was agreed to “after only 48 hours.” Khamenei said that this showed, “the Zionist regime has been brought to its knees.”
Khamenei was referring to Operation Cast Lead, which lasted for 22 days from December 2008 into January 2009, and Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012, which lasted for 8 days. He did not take Operation Protective Edge, which lasted for 50 days in 2014, into account.
Ynet reported that in an interview on Iran’s state-owned Al Alam television channel, Nakhala promised that his group would open a second front on Israel’s southern border to assist Iran-backed Hezbollah in a future conflict with Israel. “In the next confrontation with the occupation, the axis of resistance will operate from the north in Lebanon to the south in Gaza,” Nakhala said.
Nakhala’s interview came following meetings with Khamenei, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, along with two of his top aides, Khaled Al-Batsh and Mohammed al-Hindi.
PIJ is the second largest military organization in Gaza and usually works together with Hamas. However, Ynet observed, “it has recently subjugated itself almost completely to Iran, despite being a Sunni organization.”
Iran has been very vocal in its support of PIJ, which has been designated as a terror group by the United States, European Union, and Israel.
Israel blamed a late October barrage of rockets on PIJ and Iran, saying that the escalation took place “under guidance, instruction and incentives from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, based in Damascus.”
[Photo: Khamenei.ir ]