Hamas Political Bureau Deputy Head Saleh Al-'Arouri: Iran Is the Only Country that Provides Real and Public Support to the Palestinian Resistance

Saleh Al-'Arouri, deputy head of Hamas' Political Bureau, defended his organization's relations with Iran, saying that Iran, unlike other countries, provides "real and public support" to the Palestinian resistance, without concern for the consequences. Iran is "the only country that says that the [Zionist] entity is cancerous and should be uprooted from the region," he said in the interview, which aired on Al-Quds TV on December 30, 2017.

Saleh Al-'Arouri: "Our relations with Iran are based on the fact that Iran is the most [hostile] country in the world toward the Zionist entity. Iran is the only country that says that this entity is cancerous, and should be uprooted from the region. This is Iran's official position and it is willing to provide real and public support to the Palestinian and other resistance movements fighting that entity. Brother, if any official body gives us support – and I'm not talking about military aid because nobody but Iran gives us any military support... If anyone gives us aid, it makes us swear a hundred times that we won’t reveal this, because it fears the world order.

"The Iranians, on the other hand, provide aid to the Palestinian resistance, and are not worried about the consequences. There is an important point I would like to make. We tell our people and our brothers that the aid Iran provides to the resistance is not merely symbolic. This is real aid, which is essential for the resistance to continue and be effective. Secondly, many people say: What has Iran ever done for the Palestinian cause? [They say:] Show me where it has ever confronted the Israel entity. I am not an Iranian defending my country. I am a Sunni Arab Palestinian from Hamas, but I'm talking about the reality. On the one hand, there are countries that support Israel, conspire with it day in and day out, and sacrifice Jerusalem and the holy places, and on the other hand, we have [Iran], which provides us aid against the Israel entity.

"To the people who question Iran's confrontation with Israel, I say: Who supported the resistance in Lebanon until it drove out the Israeli entity? It was Iran. Who supports the resistance in Gaza and Palestine? Iran. It is Iran and Hizbullah that confront that entity along with us."