Hamas deputy leader says to continue Iran ties, armed fight

DUBAI – The deputy head of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas vowed to keep close ties with Israel's arch-enemy Iran and to maintain its weapons, Iranian media reported on Sunday, rejecting Israeli preconditions for any peace talks.

"Undoubtedly, the Palestinian resistance forces will never give up ... their arms," the semi-official news agency Mehr quoted Saleh Arouri as saying at a meeting with the Iranian parliament's speaker Ali Larijani in Tehran.

Israel said on Tuesday it would not hold peace negotiations with a Palestinian government dependent on Hamas and demanded that Hamas recognize Israel, disarm, and sever its ties with Iran.

"Our presence in Iran is the practical denial of the third pre-condition—cutting ties with Iran," Arouri said earlier, quoted by Iran's Fars news agency.