Iran’s president pledges carte blanche support for Hamas

President Masoud Pezeshkian offers Hamas total support for “every action you take,” even as Iran wavers on Gaza disarmament plan.

By World Israel News Staff

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian pledged to support whatever decisions Hamas and other Palestinian leaders make in negotiations with Israel, offering broad public backing as the terrorist group weighs implementation of a US-backed plan requiring it to surrender its weapons and relinquish control of Gaza.

Pezeshkian made the commitment during a telephone conversation with newly appointed Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya that was publicized by the Iranian president’s office Wednesday.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will support any measure, initiative or decision taken by Palestinian leaders,” Pezeshkian said, according to Iran International’s translation of the government account.

The statement was notable because officials from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps reportedly tried to prevent Hamas from accepting the disarmament agreement only days earlier.

During a recent Hamas delegation’s visit to Iran, senior IRGC officials urged the group not to rush into signing the Board of Peace roadmap and advised it to play for time, Axios reported. A senior US official said Iran attempted to persuade Hamas to reject the emerging agreement, but Hamas ultimately disregarded the appeal.

Pezeshkian did not explicitly endorse Hamas’s disarmament or the specific terms negotiated with President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace. His pledge could also encompass a Palestinian decision to demand changes, delay implementation or abandon the agreement.

Nevertheless, his public promise to support any decision taken by Palestinian leaders appeared more flexible than the position reportedly presented privately by the IRGC. The difference could reflect contrasting messages from Iran’s elected government and its powerful military establishment, although there was no public indication that Pezeshkian was challenging the Guards directly.

According to a separate Hamas account of the conversation, Pezeshkian told al-Hayya, “We are with you, and we support you in every action you take, despite the attacks we are facing.”

The Iranian president said Tehran’s confrontation with Israel and the US had not displaced the Palestinian issue from the center of the Islamic Republic’s regional policy. He described Palestine as the “foremost issue for the Islamic world” and promised that Iran would continue providing assistance despite the pressure it faces.

Pezeshkian also congratulated al-Hayya on his recent election as Hamas’s overall leader and praised him for coordinating among Palestinian factions. The president called for greater unity among Muslim countries and said Iran would continue working to reduce disagreements within the Islamic world.

Al-Hayya thanked Iran for its longstanding support and briefed Pezeshkian on the negotiations, developments in Gaza and the situation in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in particular, according to the Iranian account.

The Hamas leader said the group was coordinating its diplomatic strategy with other Palestinian factions. He added that Hamas would not allow Israel to obtain through negotiations what, in his telling, it had failed to secure on the battlefield. Al-Hayya also requested the benefit of Iran’s diplomatic experience as Hamas navigates the talks.

The conversation came less than three weeks after Hamas selected al-Hayya to succeed Yahya Sinwar as its overall leader. Al-Hayya, the group’s longtime Gaza chief in exile and principal negotiator, is viewed as closer to Tehran and more hardline than former Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal, who had also sought the leadership position.

His appointment raised questions about whether Hamas was preparing to compromise on disarmament or seeking to preserve its armed structure under a new political arrangement. Al-Hayya has maintained close relations with Iranian leaders and survived an Israeli attack targeting senior Hamas officials in Doha in 2025.

Trump announced last week that the Board of Peace had reached what he called a “HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT” of Hamas and other armed factions in Gaza.

Under the proposed roadmap, Hamas would surrender its role in government and transfer civilian and security authority to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a new Palestinian technocratic body. An international stabilization force would help train Palestinian police and support the weapons-collection process.

The demilitarization process is expected to take approximately 200 to 250 days and proceed geographically, with monitors verifying each stage before the next begins.

Hamas’s civilian police would first transfer their weapons to a new Palestinian police force. Heavy weapons would then be decommissioned and stored, while weapons-production facilities and tunnels would be dismantled. Small arms would be collected under Palestinian law, according to officials involved in drafting the plan.

Despite Trump’s announcement, Hamas and Israel remain divided over which side must act first.

Hamas negotiator Ghazi Hamad described the framework as “difficult and painful” but said Israel must end its attacks and withdraw before Hamas begins surrendering weapons. Under Hamas’s interpretation, the weapons would be placed in storage under the supervision of the new Palestinian administration rather than handed to Israel or another foreign party.

Israel has rejected that sequence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that the IDF would remain at its current positions until Hamas was completely disarmed.

The Trump administration “sent us a draft. We did not agree. It is not our draft. We sent our comments,” Netanyahu said.

The plan calls for reciprocal, independently verified steps in which Hamas disarms, the new Palestinian administration assumes control and Israeli forces gradually withdraw. Israel is also expected to stop offensive operations and targeted killings except when confronting an imminent threat.