HAMAS RESTORES ITS TIES WITH IRAN

Plans to rebuild military, denies goal is war

GAZA, PALESTINIAN TERRITORY • Hamas’ new leader in the Gaza Strip on Monday said his group has restored relations with Iran and is using its newfound financial and military aid from the country to gear up for a new round of battle with Israel.

Yehiyeh Sinwar delivered his assessment as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was visiting neighbouring Israel. At a meeting with the UN chief, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu complained about rising anti-Israel activity by Iran and its allies across the region.

Iran was once Hamas’ top backer. But Hamas broke away from Iran in 2012 after it refused to support Iran’s close ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad, in the Syrian civil war.

Sinwar said those ties have been repaired and were stronger than ever.

“Today, the relationship with Iran is excellent, or very excellent,” said Sinwar. He said the Islamic Republic is “the largest backer financially and militarily” to Hamas’ military wing.

Sinwar, 55, who was elected in February, has close ties with Hamas’ extremist wing and takes a hard line toward Israel.

Sinwar would not say how much aid Iran provides. Before the 2012 breakup, Iran provided an estimated US$50 million a month to Hamas, a group that seeks Israel’s destruction.

Hamas wrested control of Gaza from the Westernbacked President Mahmoud Abbas’ forces in 2007. Since then, it has fought three wars with Israel.

Sinwar stressed that the Iranian aid is for “rebuilding and accumulating” Hamas’ military powers for a larger fight against Israel.

“Thousands of people work every day to make rockets, (dig) tunnels, and train frogmen,” he said. “The relationship with Iran is in this context.”

But the shadowy leader, who spent about 25 years in an Israeli prison, said his movement does not intend to start a fourth war with Israel, instead preferring to remedy dire living conditions in the coastal enclave.

Meanwhile, during his meeting with Guterres, Netanyahu accused the UN of failing to prevent arms from being smuggled to Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah militants.

Netanyahu also claimed that Iran was building sites in Syria and Lebanon for the manufacture of “precision-guided missiles,” with the aim of deploying them against Israel.

Guterres said those who call for Israel’s destruction peddle in a “form of modern anti-Semitism” — though he also said he doesn’t always agree with the country’s policies.

“I believe that the horror of the Holocaust should be such that anti-Semitism should now be dead forever,” he said.