Hamas and Iran - Together at Last.

Meshaal urges Iranian students to join Islamist liberation of all Palestine
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
February 2, 2009, 9:48 PM (GMT+02:00)

On the third day of his talks with Iranian leaders in Tehran, Hamas' supreme leader Khaled Meshaal urged Iranian students to join his Islamist movement in helping liberate all of Palestine, secure the return of all Palestinians and retake Jerusalem so that "we can pray together."

[So they are not able to pray in jerusalem now? But then, that wasn't what he meant by that statement, was it!]

He was addressing students to the University of Tehran after briefings from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on how to respond to the Egyptian initiative for a long-term truce in the Gaza Strip.

Tehran's aggressive line ensured that the talks Hamas representatives are holding in Cairo will stall and the missiles will keep coming from Gaza against Israel.

DEBKAfile's Iranian sources disclose the three topics uppermost in Meshaal's talks with Iranian leaders:

1. Tehran's decision about playing tough in Middle East, including Gaza, depends on the prospect of direct talks with the Obama administration in Washington. Iranian leaders have so far taken a harsh line toward the new administration in an effort to dictate the ground rules ahead of any dialogue, so it is hard to believe they will turn soft on Gaza.

2. Iranian-Egyptian relations have never been so adversarial. Tehran will therefore be loath to grant president Hosni Mubarak advantages on the Palestinian playing field.

3. Tehran must hurry up and pump military and economic assistance into the Gaza Strip to shore up Hamas' rule. A delay carries the risk of the Palestinian Islamists turning to Cairo and Riyadh to earn the proffered Saudi-Egyptian aid package for reconstructing the ruined territory.

Most urgently, Hamas needs large amounts of cash to stay afloat.

So if Meshaal comes away from his talks in Tehran with pledges of funds and arms, he will almost certainly instruct the Hamas delegation to ditch the Egyptians and their proposals.

The Israeli defense minster Ehud Barak will then lose out on his tactic of gambling on an Egyptian success.





Hamas