Iran: Arabs should aid Gaza militarily like we do

Iran’s parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani says Tehran is proud of its military support for Gaza.

By JOANNA PARASZCZUK
Iranian Parliament Speaker Larijani_311 (photo credit: Reuters/Caren Firouz )
Iranian Parliament Speaker Larijani_311
(photo credit: Reuters/Caren Firouz )
Tehran is “proud of [its] military support for Gaza,” Iran’s parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani said on Wednesday.
Larijani called on Arab countries to emulate Iran’s example and also send military aid to the Strip, according to reports in Fars News, which is closely affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“We are proud to announce our support for the Palestinians and for Hamas, and we proudly state that we will support the Palestinian people even in the most severe circumstances,” he said.
Iran was “honored to have aided the Palestinian people, both in material terms and militarily,” the speaker said.
He slammed Arab countries for “sit[ing] and hold[ing] conferences and meetings.”
“They must know that the Palestinian people do not need meetings and lectures,” Larijani added.
Later on Wednesday, Revolutionary Guard commander Maj.-Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari said in a news conference that Iran had transferred missile technology to Gaza.
Asked to comment on reports that Iran has supplied the Hamas-controlled Strip with its Fajr artillery missiles, Jafari said Tehran had “not made missiles available to the people of Gaza.”
Instead Iran had “placed at [Gaza’s] disposal only the technology and manufacturing knowledge of those missiles,” Jafari said, according to the Revolutionary Guard’s official news site, Sepah News.
The Revolutionary Guard commander also commented on reports that Tehran was opposed to a cease-fire in Gaza.
“This report is wholly untrue and the Islamic Republic of Iran calls for a cease-fire that would be advantageous to the people of Gaza,” he said.
Jafari’s comments are an overt admission that Iran has supplied Hamas with its military technology.
The remarks come after Tehran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Rahmin Mehmanparast, refused to confirm or deny on Tuesday whether Iran had supplied Hamas with weapons.
Tehran initially sought to distance itself from comments made over the weekend by Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary- general of Hezbollah - Iran’s Lebanese proxy - who congratulated Hamas for its use of Iranian-made Fajr-5 artillery missiles.
On Monday, however, Iran’s state-controlled Arabic language TV channel, Al-Alam, broadcasted an interview with a senior Islamic Jihad leader, Ziyad Nakhleh, who said that Hamas had Iranian Fajr-3 and Fajr-5 rockets that had come from “allies and brethren in Iran.”