Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani — touted by many in the West as a “moderate” — hailed on Wednesday the “tireless resistance of [the] Palestinian nation” against Israel.

In a speech delivered at the conclusion of the two-day Sixth International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifada in Tehran, Rouhani, according to the semi-official state news agency Mehr, said “intifada” — the Arabic word meaning “tremor” that is most commonly associated around the world with surges of Palestinian violence against Israel — is “a struggle for [survival] and the sole choice by a noble nation to stay and not give up.”

Also on Wednesday, the Tehran Times reported, Rouhani met with Salim Zanoun — chairman of the Palestinian National Council — and said, “The Iranian people have paid high cost for supporting the Palestinians and opposing the Zionist regime of Israel’s actions, however they will continue their supports [sic].”

As reported in The Algemeiner last year, Iran has been making serious attempts to restore its relationship with Hamas — the Islamist Palestinian terrorist group that rules the Gaza Strip. Shiite Iran was once a main backer — both financially and militarily — of Sunni Hamas, but ties soured following the outbreak of the Syria conflict in 2011, when they found themselves on opposite sides, and Hamas was forced to abandon its Damascus command post.

In December, Hamas’ representative in Tehran said his group’s ties with the Iranian regime were “getting better every day.”