Khamenei claimed earlier in the day that the massacre by Hamas, a Palestinian terror group supported by Tehran, occurred “just when the region needed it.” He added that there was a plan by “the Americans, the Zionists, of their supporters and of some of the countries in the region to change the equation in the region” — an apparent reference to ongoing, US-brokered efforts to foster a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The Iranian leader was speaking at a ceremony marking 35 years since the death of his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.
The Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-governance over the West Bank, took issue with Khamenei’s remarks.
“The Palestinian people have been fighting for 100 years, and they don’t need more wars that don’t serve their interests — freedom and protection of al-Quds and the holy places,” Abbas’s office said, according to Haaretz. The statement added that “we want to end the occupation and implement the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and not a policy that does not serve the interests of the Palestinian people.”
The official WAFA Palestinian news agency quoted Abbas’s office as saying that Khamenei’s comments “clearly declare that their goal is to sacrifice Palestinian blood and thousands of children, women, and the elderly, and to destroy Palestinian land.”
This is not the first time that Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority (PA) is the chief political rival of Hamas, has publicly slammed Iran.
In April, Fatah, the main Palestinian faction in the West Bank and the movement that controls the PA, lambasted Iran for meddling in internal Palestinian affairs, accusing the Iranian regime of spreading chaos in its territory.
“This external interference, particularly by Iran, has no other objective than to sow chaos in the Palestinian internal arena, which will only benefit the Israeli occupation and the enemies of our people,” Fatah said in a statement.
