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Washington, 22 January (IranVNC)—Iran’s Majlis [parliament] speaker Ali Larijani yesterday said that the three-week-long Gaza conflict showed that an international plan to restrict Iran’s influence in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip had failed.

“The Gaza incident was a continuation of the plan of an international partnership of the U.S. and some Western and Arab countries to restrict Iran, but was defeated,” Larijani was quoted by the conservative Fars News Agency as saying in a speech in Qom.

“American and Israeli leaders thought that by attacking Gaza, they would cut off one of Iran’s arms in order to restore the lost reputation and reconstruct the identity of Israel in the region and the world,” he added.

The Gaza conflict was the “fruit of the movement that was created by Hezbollah in Lebanon”, Larijani continued, in reference to the 2006 war between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.

The U.S. and Israel accuse Iran of sending arms and funds to Hamas militants in Gaza as well as to Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Iran has said that its support for the groups is solely humanitarian and moral.

Israel has said that it launched its offensive on 27 December in a bid to halt Hamas rocket fire into Israel and to cut off the group’s suspected arms route from Iran via tunnels along the Egypt-Gaza border.

Media reports say that some of the tunnels bombed during the 22-day offensive have been ... >>>