Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Palestinians on Tuesday to continue their armed struggle in the latest in a series of anti-Israel comments by senior Iranian officials.
"The experience of the past 50 years shows that compromise with the Zionist occupiers and negotiations with them will not improve the situation," state television quoted Khamenei as saying.
"We therefore conclude that victory will be achieved only through resistance," Khamenei said during a meeting with Khaled Meshaal, chief-in-exile of Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Khamenei's remarks followed several anti-Israel statements by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in recent weeks which have prompted censure by the UN Security Council and widespread condemnation by world leaders.
Ahmadinejad, a former Revolutionary Guardsman elected in June, has called Israel a "tumour" which must be "wiped off the map" and expressed doubt that the Holocaust took place.
Khamenei on Tuesday praised the armed uprising led by Palestinian groups such as Hamas which had "demonstrated that the Palestinian people's power is greater than the capabilities of the Zionist regime and America".
"In view of the existing circumstances, the Palestinian people and the resistance groups must maintain their vigilance and continue their duty of jihad," he added.
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