Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images/FILEThe Iran factor“Hamas acquires its weapons through smuggling or local construction and receives some military support from Iran,” the CIA’s World Factbook says. Video Ad Feedback Retired general explains why he thinks Iran helped support Hamas attacks 01:08 - Source: CNNBut Iran has been a mentor, too, analysts say. A senior Hamas official based in Lebanon gave details of the Hamas’ weapons manufacturing in an edited interview with Russia Today’s Arabic-news channel RTArabic published on their website on Sunday. And Tehran keeps the training of Hamas’ weapons makers current, he added. Gaza has none of the heavy industry that would support weapons production in most of the world.

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Persons: It’s, –, Said Khatib, ”, Bilal Saab, Daniel Byman, Charles Lister, Byman, “, ” Ali Baraka, Mahmud Hams, Lister, ” Lister, Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, what’s, Alkhatib, Aaron Pilkington, Baraka, ” Pilkington Organizations: CNN, Hamas, Brigades, Getty, ’, Defense and Security, Middle East Institute, Transnational, Center for Strategic, International Studies, MEI, CSIS, Hamas National Relations, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hamas ’, CIA, Washington Institute for Near, Fikra, US Air Force, Middle, University of Denver Locations: Israel, Gaza, Egypt, Palestinian, AFP, Iran, Islamic Republic, Hamas, Washington, “ Iran, Lebanon, Russia, Kalashnikovs, Tehran, Iran’s, Saudi