Iraq’s Grand Cleric Pleased with Iran’s Military Aid to Palestine

Grand Cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Bahr al-Ulloum thanked Iran’s assistance and military aid to the Palestinian resistance groups during the recent Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.

“When Khaled Mashaal said that we gained victory first with the help of the God and then with the backups of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we became glad to hear that Iran was helping Palestine to overcome Israel,” Bahr al-Ulloum said in a meeting with visiting Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani in Iraq on Tuesday.

The grand Ayatollah also expressed pleasure in the victory of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, over the Israeli enemy during the eight-day invasion.

Also during the meeting, the two sides stressed further development of the bilateral ties between Iran and Iraq as two friendly and brotherly countries.

Iran’s technological support for Hamas and other Palestinian groups’ weapons systems helped them defeat Israel on the 8th day of an Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip last week.

Political and military experts believe that Israel was shocked and later pushed to reassess its calculations after Palestinian groups responded to the Israeli army’s aggression on Gaza with a stunning retaliation, hitting Tel Aviv, a move which eventually made Israel start an overture and change its war rhetoric about an impending ground incursion into Gaza to a tone of compromise in pursuit of truce.

Israel was surprised when Palestinians in Gaza targeted Tel Aviv, 70km away from the foremost Palestinian territories, for the first time. The longest range recorded by Palestinian missiles prior to Friday had been 40km.

Things grew worse for Israeli rulers when Hamas targeted Herzliya, a city 11km North of Tel Aviv.

Targeting Herzliya meant that Palestinian resistance groups now had the capability to hit targets, at least, 80km away, much beyond the previously thought 40-km range for Palestinian missiles.

And this strategic weapon which changed the scene of the war between Israel and Palestinians is a rocket known as Fajr-5.

Fajr-class rockets, Fajr-5 (Dawn 5) in particular, are known and described by the world military experts, as a weapon system appropriate for asymmetric wars, where the military power of the conflicting sides differs significantly.

The two-stage version of Fajr-5 rockets are the most effective and longest range of the Fajr-class rockets and can be used against enemy targets such as command and control centers, logistics, radar, communication, airports, plants and economic and political centers.

Israel had called up thousands of reservists and massed troops along the border with Gaza, signaling a ground invasion of the densely populated seaside strip could be imminent. But the Palestinian groups’ missile attacks on Tel Aviv and the areas in the vicinity of Jerusalem frightened the Israeli regime, making it drop its aggression plans and ask for third party mediation.

Eventually, a Cairo-mediated ceasefire agreement, which took effect on Wednesday November 21, ended the Israeli attacks, which killed more than 165 Palestinians and injured about 1,269 others.