From the Liveblog of
Monday, October 9, 2023
Iran president praises ‘innovative operation’ in call with Islamic Jihad chief
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleGianluca Pacchiani is the Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi hails the “brilliant and impressive victories” of the “Palestinian resistance,” in a phone call with Islamic Jihad leader Ziyad Nakhaleh, Iran’s Tasnim news outlet reports.
“You really made the Islamic community happy with this innovative and victorious operation,” the president says. “The Zionist regime is declining while the resistance front is conquering the peaks of victory,” Raisi adds.
For his part, Nakhaleh thanks Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the government and people of Iran for supporting Palestinians.
The report comes after Iran rejected allegations it had a role in the Hamas onslaught.
Iran has made support for the Palestinian cause a centerpiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and was one of the first countries to hail Hamas’s devastating surprise assault on Saturday.
Nakhaleh is known to be in close contact with the Iranian leadership, which provides arms and financing to both the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups.
The Times of Israel Community.