WASHINGTON – Iranian officials have pledged unlimited assistance to the "Palestinian resistance," including weapons and humanitarian assistance.
The pledge of "no limit" to Iran's humanitarian and "other type assistance" to the Palestinian people against Israeli attacks came from Commander of Basji (volunteer) Force Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi and Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, or IRGC.
"The Iranian nation's aids to Palestinian people recognizes no boundary, and whatever they need, it will be in our aids," Naqdi told Iran's Fars news agency.
"As Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution (Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei) has stressed, we are fully ready to provide any health and hygiene aid as much as the ground is prepared," Naqdi said. "The Iranian nation is also ready to supply the Palestinians with food stuff and arms aid."
TRENDING: Jihad against Christians is due to … climate change?
Naqdi said the "Muslim world" is ready "for the annihilation of the Zionist regime" and will "spare no effort" to provide the aid.
He said the West "should know that the spilled blood of children and defenseless people of Gaza is a final stamp on the West and Zionist regime's liberal democracy."
Iran is a major backer of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. After the beginning of the Syrian civil war, Hamas officials who once had headquarters in Damascus turned against the Shiite-Alawite government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose opposition was Sunnis.
Until Hamas' split with Syria, Iran was a major financial and logistical supplier to Hamas. Iran has sent fighters into Syria to back the Assad regime.
Hamas instead sought assistance from Muslim Brotherhood-backed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi until he was ousted by the Egyptian military. Eager to find new sponsors, Hamas leaders turned back to Iran.
Echoing Naqdi, IRGC chief Jafari underscored his forces' readiness to back the "Palestinian resistance groups," which include Hamas "in their fight against the Israeli regime."
"We are ready to support the Palestinian resistance in different dimensions," Jafari said. "When speaking about defending the Muslims, Shiites and Sunnis are of no difference to us, and our devotion and dedication goes to all the Muslim world and the oppressed."
In comments to reporters, Jafari said there was unity among Shiites and Sunnis who will soon "annihilate the Zionist regime and we are ready for that day."
Following remarks by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a number of Iranian Army and IRGC commanders underscored the need for all Islamic countries to provide weapons and military tools and equipment to the Palestinians to defend against Israeli attacks.
"This is the duty of the Muslim world to obey the order of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution (Khamenei) and arm the Palestinian people so that a powerful response will be given to the Zionist regime," said Brig. Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, commander of the Army Ground Force.
"The Zionist regime will not sit at the negotiating table unless the language of force is exercised on them, and we have witnessed that the rockets fired by the Palestinians have created such a strange fear among the Zionists and they are now after truce," Pourdastan said.
"We believe the West Bank, too, should be armed just like Gaza, and those who are interested in the fate of the Palestinians must work in this respect so that the pains and miseries of the Palestinian people will be decreased due to their mighty hands and the weakness of the Zionist enemy," he said.
Lt. Commander of the IRGC Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami vowed continued resistance against Israel and said there was no place was secure for the "Zionists."
Today, no point in the occupied territories is secure for the Zionists and the 33-day, 22-day and eight-day wars have caused an epic of resistance and today the Palestinian resistance's missiles are beyond the Zionists' expectations," Salami said.
He warned the "Zionists" of Muslims' "tough reaction and response to "their crimes."
"We will chase you house by house and take revenge for every drop of our martyrs' blood n Palestine and this is the start of the Muslim nations' awakening for defeating you," he said.
To date in the nearly month-long Israeli-Hamas conflict, the Palestinians claim 1,865 of their people have been killed and 10,000 others injured. The Israelis report the loss of 64 Israeli soldiers and three civilians.