Documents found in Gaza in Khan Younis in January have now detailed how Hamas reached out to Hezbollah and Iran as part of its plans for the October 7 attack. Since the attack, Iran has sought to pretend it didn’t know about the genocidal plans.
However, Iran’s claims are not bolstered by how Tehran reacted to the attack. Iran encouraged Hezbollah to begin attacks on Israel in the wake of October 7, and it enlisted the Houthis in Yemen to attack Israel and attack shipping. Iran also mobilized militias in Iraq and Syria to attack US forces and attack Israel.
However, Iran is concerned that the documents revealed in reports in The New York Times and The Washington Post will bring more concrete evidence that Iran was involved. Now, Iran is trying to push back. The Iranian mission to the UN in New York issued statements this week “dismissing allegations linking the Hamas-led Al-Aqsa Storm Operation to the Islamic Republic, saying that any such claims have no credibility and are based on fabricated documents.”
Iran also wants to make sure that it seems that Qatar, which is a friend of Iran, did not know about the attack. Hamas leaders are hosted by Doha. “While Doha-based Hamas officials have themselves stated that they, too, had no prior knowledge of the operation and that all the planning, decision-making, and directing were solely executed by Hamas’s military wing based in Gaza, any claim attempting to link it to Iran or Hezbollah — either partially or wholly — is devoid of credence and comes from fabricated documents,” the Iranians said over the weekend in New York.
Iran is distressed by reports from the American media. It wants to make sure that it is pushing back officially. “The US daily claimed that a review into the documents shows that Hamas had long planned the operation and held meetings with Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement to seek their help and make them join the operation,” Iranian state media IRNA reported.
Iran dismisses claims of Hamas request for $500 million
“On Saturday, the Iranian Mission issued yet another statement in response to the Washington Post’s claim about an alleged Israeli document showing a Hamas request for $500 million from Iran, which the newspaper said it did not receive any response from Tehran.”
Iran is trying to pretend these factual reports are “Zionist lies.” But Iran is making so much noise because it is afraid that more evidence will emerge. Iran doesn’t usually issue these kinds of statements. The fact that Iran is moving quickly to contain the fallout shows that it knows it has a potential problem on its hands.
“We consider Israel a criminal, anti-human, and lying regime, and we do not give any credit to its delusions, the Iranian mission said, adding that the Zionists have a long history of spreading lies, fake documents, and psychological operations of deception,” the Iranians have said. “Ever since the Al-Aqsa Storm Operation, which was followed by the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza, Iran has, time and again, said that it had no prior knowledge of the operation and called it a fully Palestinian operation,” the regime added.
