The leaders of regional Iranian proxy terrorist organizations gathered last week in Beirut to meet on strategies to escalate the conflict with Israel, according to a Houthi official who spoke on Saturday (March 16) with the AFP news agency.
Representatives of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Houthis from Yemen (Ansarallah) attended the meeting.
“The Palestinian resistance factions conveyed their great appreciation for the pivotal and significant role of Ansarallah, affirmed the depth of the relationship, and sent greetings to (Houthi leader) Sayyed Abdulmalik Al-Houthi, who emphasized the centrality of the Palestinian people’s struggle, and the Yemeni people and Ansar Allah’s commitment to the Palestinian cause,” sources told the Hezbollah-linked Al-Mayadeen news outlet in Lebanon.
“The meeting between the Palestinian factions and Ansar Allah comes within the framework of enhancing the factions’ role in integration and readiness for the possibilities of the expansion of the escalation in Ramadan, and readiness for the Rafah phase,” a reference to the planned expansion of Israeli military operations to the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where the remaining four Hamas battalions are believed to be holed up.
It is interesting to note that Lebanon’s Iranian proxy, Hezbollah, was apparently not represented at the meeting.
According to the report, those who attended discussed “mechanisms to coordinate their actions of resistance” for the “next stag” of the war launched by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023.
The so-called “Axis of Resistance” — a group of Iranian proxies that includes the Houthis, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and armed groups in Iraq such as Kata’ib Hezbollah (the Hezbollah Brigades), a radical Iraqi Shiite paramilitary group which is part of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).
