Iran’s Zarif: We didn’t know about Oct. 7, Israel failed in its goals in Gaza

At the Davos World Economic Forum, Iran’s Vice President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif says Tehran was caught by surprise by Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

“We didn’t know about October 7. Actually we were supposed to have a meeting with the Americans on [the nuclear deal’s] renewal on October 9, which was undermined and destroyed by this operation,” he says during an interview.

The top official asserts that Israel has failed in its Gaza war objectives.

“Right now as you look at Gaza… Netanyahu did not achieve his goal of destroying Hamas, Hamas is still there. Israel had to come to a ceasefire,” he says. “I wouldn’t suggest anybody start rejoicing over destroying Hamas as well as the Palestinian resistance, or cutting Iran’s arms, because the resistance will stay as long as they’re occupied.”

He goes on: “The resistance is not dead. I can tell you that the wishes for the resistance to go away have been based on a misrepresentation, a framing by Israel, that this is not an Israeli-Palestinian issue but an Israeli-Iranian issue.”

He downplays allegations by Israel and many Western nations that Iran has built a network of Middle East proxies beholden to its expansionist plans.

“Find me a single instance when these groups, which are I think erroneously called Iranian proxies, operated on our behalf,” he demands.

Zarif also denies widespread reporting that Israel took out much of the country’s air defense capabilities during an air offensive in October 2024 that was a retaliation for two Iranian missile and drone barrages on the country.

“The story about destroying our air defense is a story and there is a reason behind it,” he says. “We suffered [some damage], but it didn’t mean that we lost our air defense.”

Zarif, who was the lead negotiator on the 2015 deal between Iran and world powers, denies Iran is seeking a nuclear weapon, even when confronted with the Western assessment that Iran can break out toward creating the material for several bombs within days, if it chooses.

“Had we wanted to build a nuclear weapon we could have done it long time ago. A program to build nuclear weapons is not going to be like our program. You build nuclear weapons in hidden laboratories that are not subject to international inspection,” he says.

Western nations say Iran’s nuclear enrichment program has no feasible civilian application. The UN nuclear watchdog has long complained of Iranian impediments to its inspection work.

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