Iran rejects as unfounded allegations it had a role in the massive assault on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
“The accusations linked to an Iranian role… are based on political reasons,” foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani tells reporters.
The Islamic Republic, he says, does not intervene “in the decision-making of other countries, including Palestine.”
Iran, which does not recognize Israel and has made support for the Palestinian cause a centerpiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, was one of the first countries to hail Hamas’s devastating surprise assault on Saturday.
The Palestinians had “the necessary capacity and will to defend their nation and recover their rights” without any help from Tehran, Kanani says.
“Talking about an Iranian role aims at turning public opinion (away from the facts) and at justifying the potential future actions” of Israel, the spokesman adds.
The Wall Street Journal reported that “Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas’s Saturday surprise attack on Israel and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday,” citing senior members of Hamas and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
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From the Liveblog of
Monday, October 9, 2023
