Live Update arrow right icon From the Liveblog of Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Iran supreme leader hosts PIJ chief, congratulates him on ‘victory in Gaza’

By Charlie Summers 18 February 2025, 7:48 pm 13 Edit

Iran’s supreme leader met with Palestinian Islamic Jihad chief Ziad Nakhaleh and a small accompanying delegation earlier today in Tehran.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei scorned US President Donald Trump’s proposal for Gaza during the meeting, calling his repeated calls to displace Palestinians from the enclave en masse “foolish plans” that “will lead nowhere.”

He also congratulated Nakhaleh on his group’s purported “victory in Gaza” and claimed that as global public opinion tilts to favor the Palestinian cause, no plan for the Strip will succeed without the “consent of the Resistance and the people of Gaza.”

Per a statement from Khamenei’s office, Nakhaleh thanked the Islamic Republic and Hezbollah, Iran’s Lebanese proxy, for lending support to the Islamic Jihad and Hamas terror groups over the course of the Gaza war.

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