Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hosted Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh earlier this week in the Iranian capital of Tehran.

Haniyeh led a Hamas delegation alongside rival Islamic Jihad representatives, who also met with other senior Iranian officials including the ayatollah regime’s President Ebrahim Raisi.

The Iranian-controlled media outlet IRNA announced that Haniyeh traveled to Tehran “at the head of a high-ranking delegation to meet with the authorities of the Islamic Republic.”

The United States and much of the Western world view Iran as the leading sponsor of global terrorism.

The ayatollah regime in Tehran is ideologically opposed to the very existence of a Jewish state and repeatedly calls for its destruction. Consequently, the nation has built a vast network of terrorist proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Iranian National Security Council Secretary Ali Akbar Ahmadian praised the terror attacks against Israel, saying, “Palestinian resistance is the best way to overthrow Israel.”

Ziad Al-Nakhala, secretary-general of the Islamic Jihad group, led the terror delegation in Tehran. Unlike Hamas, PIJ is fully supported financially and ideologically by Iran.

In May, the Iranian regime praised Islamic Jihad for the “defeat of the Zionist regime” in the “five-day war,” following violent clashes with the Jewish state.

Tehran has recently tried to establish a large terrorist network in the West Bank against Israelis.

This article originally appeared on All Arab News and is reposted with permission.