Israel Obliged to Negotiate Truce after Military Failure in Gaza: Amirabdollahian

Highlighting the Zionist regime’s failure to attain any military achievement after seven weeks of brutal strikes against the Gaza Strip, the Iranian foreign minister said Israel has been forced to hold indirect negotiations with Hamas over a ceasefire and exchange of prisoners.

News ID: 84430

Date: 28 November 2023 - 08:07

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who has visited Qatar after a trip to Lebanon, held a meeting with the Head of Hamas' Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh in Doha on Thursday, ahead of a landmark four-day truce that will see the exchange of captives and the delivery of relief aid to the Gaza Strip after Israel’s brutal onslaught on the besieged territory.

The Iranian foreign minister expressed his felicitations on the resistance, resilience, and victory of the Palestinian people and the residents of Gaza during the Israeli aggression on Gaza.

“The consequences of Operation al-Aqsa Storm shook the world,” the top Iranian diplomat said, Press TV reported.

“Although the human losses of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip were high, bitter, and unfortunate, the dimensions of victory and achievement of the Palestinian nation were much bigger and tipped the strategic balance in different dimensions in favor of Palestine and the detriment of the usurping Zionist regime,” he added.

Despite more than a month and a half of aggression and brutal war and killing and injuring tens of thousands of Palestinian citizens, the US and the Israeli regime failed to achieve the least in the military field and were forced to negotiate indirectly with Hamas for a ceasefire and the release of their prisoners, Amirabdollahian stressed.

Praising the honorable and courageous resistance of the people in Gaza and its resistance groups against Israel’s 47-day brutal aggression, Amirabdollahian underlined Iran’s absolute determination to continue supporting the Palestinian people and resistance in the political and international fields.

For his part, Haniyeh appreciated Iran for its strong support for the Palestinian people and resistance during the recent Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, commending the latest ceasefire as a “political and military” victory for the resistance front.

Haniyeh expressed his appreciation for the “firm support of the Iranian leadership, the president, the government, and the people of Iran,” as well as the “active diplomatic support of the Iranian minister of foreign affairs for the Palestinian issue and its people, especially during the ongoing Israeli war against Gaza.”

The Hamas chief hailed as “honorable” the support of the resistance movements in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria to their brothers and sisters in Gaza, noting that it bears a “clear” message to the Zionist regime and the US.

Pointing to various dimensions of the Israeli regime’s war crimes against the people of Gaza, its hospitals, and urban infrastructure, Haniyeh said the US was the “main axis” of the Israeli war on Gaza.

“Despite the initial opposition to the ceasefire, the United States, understanding the realities of the battlefield was finally forced to surrender to the will of the Palestinian people and the will of the world nations and the positive vote of 120 countries to the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly for a ceasefire with Hamas, which shows the US dominance over the international order has diminished,” he added.

After prolonged negotiations and a delay of at least 24 hours, a four-day truce between the Israeli regime and Hamas took effect on Friday morning, with captives held in Gaza to be released in exchange for Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons.

More than 14,800 people have been killed in Gaza in the Israeli strikes since October 7.

The Zionist regime intensified its attacks ahead of the pause in fighting, including an airstrike that killed at least 27 people at a UN school on Thursday.