A Palestinian official says Iran’s president has met with senior Palestinian officials in Damascus and expressed his country’s support to them. Damascus-based Palestinian official Khaled Abdul-Majid told The Associated Press that the delegation briefed Iran’s Ebrahim Raisi Thursday on the situation in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. Iran has been a main backer of some Palestinian factions, supplying them with weapons and money. Raisi began a two-day visit to Syria during which the two countries signed a series of long-term cooperation agreements on oil and other sectors to bolster economic ties between the two allies.
BEIRUT (AP) Iran’s top diplomat visited Lebanon’s border with Israel on Friday where he expressed support for the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group in its struggle against their common enemy: Israel.
The Biden administration on Thursday sanctioned Russia’s Federal Security Service and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence organization for wrongfully detaining Americans. It’s the first rollout of new sanctions authorities established last year by President Joe Biden for use against those holding Americans unjustly captive. Still, the sanctions are largely symbolic, since both organizations already are under sweeping existing sanctions for an array of malevolent behavior from election interference and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to support for terrorist activity.