Nasrallah, Haniyeh Stress 'Firmness of Axis of Resistance'

Leaders of Lebanon's Hizbullah and the Palestinian Hamas movement, both enemies of Israel, have met in Lebanon to discuss diplomatic normalization between Israel and Arab countries, Hizbullah said Sunday.

They stressed the "the firmness of the axis of resistance in the face of all pressures and threats," a Hizbullah statement said, without revealing where or when the meeting took place.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was pictured meeting Ismail Haniyeh, who heads the political bureau of Hamas, the Islamist movement that control the Gaza Strip.

They discussed "political and military developments in Palestine, Lebanon and the region" and "the dangers to the Palestinian cause" including "Arab plans for normalization" with Israel, the Hizbullah statement said.

The meeting comes after an August 13 announcement that Israel and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to normalize ties.

Also on Sunday, Haniyeh was given a hero's welcome at Ain al-Hilweh, Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp. He was carried on people's back into the camp, under the protection of Hamas members and camp guards.

Before a cheering crowd of hundreds, including refugees who traveled to see him from other camps, Haniyeh praised his movement's military capacity and shrugged off the UAE-Israel normalization.

"Not long ago, our rockets only reached (targets) meters from Gaza's borders. Today, the resistance in Gaza possesses rockets that can reach Tel Aviv and beyond Tel Aviv," he said.

As for normalization between Israel and Arab countries, that "does not represent the people, neither their conscience, nor their history nor their heritage," Haniyeh said, quoted in a Hamas statement.

While the U.S.-backed diplomatic drive aims to boost a regional alliance against Iran, which backs both Hizbullah and Hamas, Palestinians have condemned it as a "stab in the back" as they remain under occupation and don't have their own state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is in talks with other Arab and Muslim leaders now about normalizing relations, following the deals with UAE and, decades ago, Egypt and Jordan.

Haniyeh has been in Lebanon since Wednesday, on his first visit to the country in nearly 30 years, for direct and video-conference talks with other Palestinian groups that oppose Israel's diplomatic initiative.

Israel's military has in recent weeks targeted Hamas in the Gaza Strip and what it says have been Hizbullah gunmen along its northern border with Lebanon.

It also regularly launches air strikes in war-torn Syria against what it says are Hizbullah and other pro-Iranian militants fighting on the side of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Nasrallah has been living in a secret location for years and makes very few public appearances. He said in 2014 that he often changes his place of residence.