Fatah denounces Khamenei\'s saying Arafat abandoned resistance Gaza – Mohammed Habib Palestinian political group Fatah has denounced Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei \'s saying that Hamas must continue its resistance against Israel. \"Yasser Arafat lost his popularity because he distanced himself from the resistance,\" Khamenei said during Hamas\'s Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh\'s visit to Iran.
 Fatah spokesperson Ahmed Assaf in return lashed out at Khamenei. He said that the status of leader Yasser Arafat was immortalised in the minds of the Palestinian people and Arab and Islamic nations and the free world, and did not require the “false testimony” of Khamenei of Iran.
Assaf added: \"The Israeli occupation assassinated Arafat because of his commitment to the rights of our people and adherence to legitimate resistance to occupation and settlement, so he became a martyr to the resistance.”
Assaf continued: \"We deplore Haniyeh\'s consistent abuse of the history of the Palestinian people in exchange for a bunch of money,\" calling on Iran to stop interfering in Palestinian and Arabic affairs.
On Sunday Khamenei voiced his country’s full support for Hamas in its fight against Israel and said Tehran considered the Palestinian issue an “Islamic cause.”
Khamenei’s remarks came during a meeting with Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who is currently on an official visit to Iran.
“Iran will always be supportive of the Palestinian cause and the Islamic resistance in Palestine,” the Tehran-based Mehr News Agency quoted Khamenei as saying.
Khamenei added that the “recent victories in Palestine were partially responsible for the Islamic awakening in the region” – a reference to the rise to power of Islamists in a number of Arab countries, including Tunisia and Egypt.
“Undoubtedly, the accumulating sentiments of the region’s peoples toward the cause of the Gaza Strip led to the sudden eruption of the volcano in the region,” the Iranian leader told Haniyeh.