The Iranian foreign minister says Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has led the regime into a quagmire in the Gaza Strip and now he has reached “the end of the line”.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in a telephone conversation with Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement on Thursday night.
“It is clear to the world that Netanyahu has reached the end of the line and is only struggling for his survival,” he said.
“As [Leader of the Islamic Revolution] Imam Khamenei stressed, the Israeli regime is stuck in the quagmire of the Gaza war, thanks to the resilience of the Palestinian people and resistance.”
Israel unleashed its US-backed war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out its historic operation in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
However, almost six months into the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has failed to achieve its objectives of "destroying Hamas" and finding Israeli captives despite killing more than 32,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 74,188 others.
During the phone call, the top Iranian diplomat briefed Haniyeh on Iran’s latest diplomatic moves regarding the Palestine issue.
He strongly criticized the UN Security Council for its failure to act on the Gaza onslaught, urging international institutions to stop the killing of defenseless Palestinians and immediately send humanitarian aid to all areas of the Gaza Strip.
Haniyeh, for his part, explained the latest political and field developments in Gaza and highlighted the high morale and capability of resistance fighters in the face of the Israeli regime’s war and killing machine.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza, especially in its northern areas, is critical, he said, underlining the need for the international community to send relief supplies to the besieged territory and confront the Israeli regime’s deliberate policy of famine and starvation.
The Hamas chief also detailed the recent political and regional efforts to stop the Israeli genocide in Gaza and exchange Israeli captives with Palestinian abductees held in the regime’s jails.
Hamas conditions for a Gaza ceasefire are based on the legitimate demands of the Palestinian people, but Israel is throwing a wrench in the truce talks, he added.
Haniyeh also emphasized that Netanyahu and the Israeli regime bear responsibility for any failure of the ceasefire negotiations.