A Study On The Relationship Between Iran And The Palestinian Question

As a great power of the Middle East, Iran pays close attention to the Palestinian Question, which is the contemporary international hot issue. This dissertation is consisted of four chapters.The first chapter describes the evolution of Iran’s stance on the Palestinian Question. During the Pahlavi dynasty, Iran supported the Palestinian’s legal struggle for national rights, insisting that Palestinian had the right of state founding and the Palestinian refugees had the right of returning to their country, opposing Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories. But Iran also held that Israel should be recognized, and the Palestinian Question would be solved only base on Palestinian-Israeli’s mutual recognition. During the Islamic republic period, Iran supported the Palestinian’s armed struggle, insisting that armed struggle was the only way to resolve the Palestinian Question, and strongly opposed Palestinian-Israeli’s peace negotiation.The second chapter studies the relationship between Iran and the Palestine Liberation Organization (which is called PLO for short) and the relationship between Iran and Hamas. The relationship between Iran and the PLO was aloof during Pahlavi dynasty and was close during the early stage after Islamic revolution victory, then is deteriorated. The reasons are these as follows:the divergence is existing between Iran and the PLO; the influence of the deterioration of the relationship between Iran and the Arab states; The PLO supported Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war and some other reasons. On the contrary, the relationship between Iran and Hamas was intimate instead of the aloofness, which includes:Iran provided Hamas the moral, political, financial and military support. The fundamental reason of the close relationship between Iran and Hamas is that both sides have their own interests needs.The third chapter is the comparison on the position between Iran and the Arab states. Both of them have the same position of supporting the Palestinian and the same consideration of obtaining the benefit from the Palestinian Question. But they have different ways to solve the Palestinian Question and have different effects on the Palestinian Question.The fourth chapter analyzes the factors affect Iran’s position on the Palestinian Question, mainly including:Iran maintained its security; Iran mitigated the pressure from the Arab states to Iran; Iran expanded the influence of Iran in the Middle East; and Iran’s own ideological influence.This dissertation draws two conclusions:1、Iran has always supported the Palestinians’struggle for restoring their legitimate national rights. But Iran’s position on the Palestinian Question was different during the Pahlavi dynasty and the Islamic republic period.2、The intervention and influence of Iran on the Palestinian Question during the Islamic Republic period is stronger compared with the Pahlavi dynasty. Iran has played a negative role in the Palestinian internal reconciliation and the Middle East peace process.