Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Friday to keep supporting the Palestinian militant group Hamas until the collapse of Israel. The news network Khabar quoted Ahmadinejad as saying in a phone conversation with Hamas leader and deposed Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya that Iran considered supporting the Palestinians its religious and national duty and would stay beside the Palestinian nation "until the big victory feast which is collapse of the Zionist
regime."
The Iranian president said that the continued Hamas resistance against Israel and the group's achievements would always be "a source of pride for all Muslims."
Iran does not acknowledge the sovereignty of Israel and vowed to support Hamas until what Ahmadinejad calls "deliverance from Zionists (Israel)."
Haniya, leader of the radical Islamist Hamas movement became prime minister in 2006, but was dismissed in June 2007 by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, after Hamas took control of the Gaza strip from Abbas' Palestinian Authority.
He never accepted his dismissal.
