DAMASCUS (AFP) — Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani held talks Thursday in Syria with Palestinian militant leader Ahmed Jibril, a statement by the radical group said.
Larijani expressed "his country's support for the Palestinian people and their resistance" against Israel's onslaught on the Gaza Strip, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) said.
Jibril, whose Syrian-backed group rejects a negotiated settlement with Israel, threatened on January 3 to open up new military fronts against Israel if the war in Gaza escalates.
Larijani, whose Islamic republic is a close ally of Gaza's Hamas rulers, also met exiled Hamas political supremo Khaled Meshaal and Ramadan Shalah of the radical Islamic Jihad group in Damascus this week, a Palestinian source said.
On Wednesday, he met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to discuss efforts by Arab and Muslim countries to end the deadly offensive unleashed on December 27.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sent 22 envoys to Europe and Asia to push for an immediate halt to the Israeli campaign, Iran's Mehr news agency reported on Wednesday.
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