Top Iran official holds talks with Syria on Gaza violence

Syria's official news agency reported Saturday that a senior Iranian official visiting Damascus has held talks on Israel's weeklong offensive in Gaza with Syrian President Bashar Assad and leaders of radical Palestinian factions. The report added that chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, also the secretary of Iran's powerful Supreme National Security Council, met Assad Saturday after he conferred late Friday with Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal and Islamic Jihad chief Ramadan Abdullah Shallah. According to Army Radio, Meshal announced in his meeting with Jalili that "Israel will deeply regret any ground invasion into the Gaza Strip," and explained that "the determination and high tolerance of the people of Gaza has taken the Zionist enemy by surprise, and will continue to do so." The Hamas leader added that any cease-fire agreement "would have to include an immediate halt to Israeli aggression as well as an end to the siege on Gaza," Army Radio reported. Iran is a close ally of Syria and supports Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Meanwhile, Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has called on all Muslim states to send weapons to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to help protect them."The oppressed Palestinian people can stand up to Israel if they get political, financial support as well as weapons," he said after Friday prayers in Tehran. Rafsanjani's remarks, quoted by the official Iranian news agency, are noteworthy because they hint that Iran is transferring weapons to Hamas, something that Iran has never admitted. The former Iranian leader added that over the course of the last week, since Israel launched its assault on the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians in Gaza "have gained a large number of supporters, many of them interested in waging Jihad (holy war) against israel." Rafsanjani went on to declare that any Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip would be with resistance from Hamas, adding that Hamas has recently developed weapons capable of penetrating Israeli tanks.

By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent and The Associated Press

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1052305.html
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