RICK SANTORUM
THE GATHERING STORM
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Hamas Holding Out
The Gathering Storm, May 29, 2008
May 29, 2008
On a trip to Tehran, Hamas Supreme Leader Khaled Mashaal met with senior Iranian military officials and was told the Islamic Republic was developing advanced missiles that would be shared with Hamas. The Iranians also assured Hamas that it remained committed to supporting Hamas if Syria and Israel reached a peace agreement. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Mashaal that Iran would increase its funding for the radical Islamist faction to make up for the likely scale back of Syrian support. "The Iranian nation and government will continue to support the Palestinian nation," he said.
Syria and Israel's discussions on progress towards peace unsurprisingly suffered this week as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad expressed his refusal to abandon an alliance with Iran as a requirement imposed by Israel as part of any peace agreement. According to Reuters , a source familiar with the meeting is quoted as saying "The president said Syria has normal relations with Iran. He made it clear that any suggestion to drop them was not a reasonable request...He said if Israel could question Syria's relations with Iran, then Syria could question Israel's ties with other countries, particularly the United States."
Cuba expressed its continued solidarity with Venezuela and its President Hugo Chavez this week during the opening of meetings between the two countries. "Cuba strongly rejects the international media campaign orchestrated by the imperialism against Venezuela and Chavez," said Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro added , "Our relation is a profound, longstanding, strategic fraternity by which we have become a single people, a single nation, as dreamed by the liberating fathers."
