Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday (January 28, 2025) that Gaza had brought Israel “to its knees”, in a reference to the recent ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
The ceasefire and hostage-release deal between Iran’s arch-enemy Israel and the Tehran-backed militant group Hamas went into effect just over a week ago, aiming to put an end to more than 15 months of war.
“The small, limited Gaza brought the Zionist regime, armed to the teeth and fully supported by America, to its knees,” Mr. Khamenei said during a meeting with officials in Tehran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi meanwhile appeared to mock U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate Palestinians, saying instead that Israelis should be sent to Greenland to resolve the issue.
“Instead of Palestinians, try to expel Israelis, take them to Greenland, killing two birds with one stone,” he said, in an interview with Sky News that was posted on his official Telegram channel.
“They can resolve the problem of Greenland and the Israelis, it would be a good place for them,” he added.
Mr. Trump on Monday (January 26, 2025) expressed his desire to move Palestinians from Gaza to “safer” locations such as Egypt or Jordan.
The U.S. President has also for years touted a purported plan to take over the autonomous Danish territory of Greenland, telling reporters on Saturday he believed the United States would “get Greenland”.
Earlier on Tuesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baqaei, had also criticised the idea of moving Palestinians out of Gaza.
“Political coercion and demographic manipulations will not be able to force the Palestinians to migrate,” Baqaei said in a post on X, adding that Gaza is the Palestinians’ “homeland and they’ve paid (an) extremely high price to remain there”.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 87 of whom remain in Gaza, including dozens Israel says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 47,000 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Published – January 28, 2025 09:31 pm IST
