Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian has assured the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas of his country’s support in a letter to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the FARS news agency reported on Thursday.
“Iran will continue to fully support the oppressed Palestinian people until their legitimate demands are met and the sacred al-Quds is liberated,” he wrote to Haniyeh, the report said.
Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem.
In the letter, Pezeshkian accused Israel of pursuing a “policy of apartheid” and called it a “human and Islamic duty” to work with the Palestinian people to end this policy once and for all.
On Monday, Peseshkian confirmed in a letter to Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that he would continue Iran’s anti-Israel course.
Pezeshkian, who defeated a hardliner in the recent second round of Iranian elections and is seen as a relative moderate, is expected to be sworn in on July 30.
It is unclear how much influence he will have over the country’s foreign policy, much of which is determined by religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s most powerful man. The constitution gives him the final say in all strategic matters.
Despite his moderate rhetoric by Iranian standards, Pezeshkian supported the powerful Revolutionary Guards during the election campaign and praised the drone and missile strike on arch-enemy Israel in April.