Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is visiting Qatar for talks with leaders of the Tehran-backed Palestinian group Hamas, according to a statement from Iran’s Foreign Ministry.(Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was visiting Qatar on Thursday to meet leaders of Tehran-backed Palestinian group Hamas, a ministry statement said.
It said he would meet senior Hamas officials “to hail the victory of the Palestinian people through 16 months of legendary resistance” in the Gaza Strip.
On October 7, 2023, Palestinian fighters based in Gaza attacked Israel which then launched an assault on the Palestinian territory.
The fighting later spread to include the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon, and also led to direct exchanges between sworn enemies the Islamic republic and Israel.
A ceasefire — mediated by Qatar, the United States and Egypt — began on January 19 that calls for 33 Israeli captives captured on October 7, 2023, to be freed in exchange for around 1,900 people — mostly Palestinians — in Israeli custody.
Araghchi also met Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani as part of talks with “Qatari officials on current developments in the region”, the Iranian foreign ministry said.
On Tuesday, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said during a meeting in Tehran that, “the small, limited Gaza brought the Zionist regime, armed to the teeth and fully supported by America, to its knees”.
On January 22 in Davos, Switzerland, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Javad Zarif acknowledged that Hamas’s attack on Israel had “destroyed” an opportunity for talks to revive a landmark nuclear accord between Iran and world powers.
