BICOM

A top military official in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) has congratulated the new leader of Hamas’s political-bureau, based in Qatar.

According to the Lebanese news channel al-Mayadeen, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who is commander of the elite Quds Force in the IRGC, wrote to Ismail Haniyeh: “We are hopeful about your efforts on institutionalising resistance along the Hamas’ jihadi line. The possibility for a virtuous fate for the Palestinian people is in your hands.”

Soleimani, who is considered the most senior Iranian military figure leading Iranian forces inside Syria, wrote that the Iranian leadership seeks “to strengthen our bond with Hamas, the ally of the resistance axis, who can raise the issue of Palestine once again”.

Expressing hope that Haniyeh’s efforts will continue until the “liberation” of Al-Aqsa and the entire Palestinian territory, he added: “To this aim, we count on your efforts to place the Palestinians on the top of the Muslims’ global fight.”

Ties between Hamas and Iran have strained since Hamas vacated its headquarters in the Syrian capital of Damascus at the beginning of the civil war that started six years ago.

In separate news, Hamas has announced that the three people suspected of killing Hamas military leader Mazen Fuqaha in March, will be executed later today.

The suspected killer and two alleged accomplices were sentenced to death on Sunday by a Hamas military court. The court said that they took part in the assassination of Fuqaha at the behest of Israel.

In early April, Hamas executed three others it accused of collaborating with Israel in an unrelated case.

Since taking over the Gaza Strip in in 2007, Hamas’s military courts have sentenced 25 people to death, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.