Iran‘s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday dismissed a proposal by the United States to displace Palestinians from the war-devastated Gaza Strip, saying it “will go nowhere”.
Khamenei made the remarks during a meeting in Tehran with Ziyad al-Nakhalah, leader of the Palestinian resistance group Islamic Jihad.
“The idiotic American plans or some other plans regarding Gaza and Palestine will go nowhere,” Khamenei said.
US President Donald Trump this month proposed a plan for a US takeover of the war-battered Gaza Strip and its Palestinian inhabitants to be relocated elsewhere, including to Egypt and Jordan.
Trump’s plan sparked an outcry from Arab governments including Egypt and Jordan as well as from world leaders, and the United Nations warned against “ethnic cleansing” in the Palestinian territory.
“No plan will be completed without the consent of the resistance and the people of Gaza,” Khamenei said, adding that global public opinion favoured the Palestinians.
Iran has already rejected the Trump plan for Gaza, calling it “an unprecedented attack” on international law and the UN Charter.
“Those who a year and a half ago claimed they would destroy the resistance in a short period of time are now receiving their prisoners in small groups from resistance fighters,” Khamenei said.
He was referring to the hostages for prisoners exchange deal between Hamas and Israel under a fragile Gaza truce which took effect on January 19 after more than 15 months of fighting.
Khamenei noted on Tuesday that under the deal, Israel is in return for hostage releases “freeing a large number of Palestinian prisoners”.
The Gaza war began after Palestinian fighters attacked communities in Israel on October 7, 2023, in an unprecedented attack.
Thirty-three Israeli hostages were due to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire deal, with 19 freed so far in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners.
Of the remaining 14, Israel says eight are dead.
Hamas said on Tuesday it would hand over all six living Israeli hostages on Saturday, and the bodies of four dead captives on Thursday.