Top Iran official says Tehran didn’t know about Oct. 7, doesn’t control ‘proxy groups’

In Davos, Mohammad Javad Zarif also says Israel failed in its Gaza war objectives, Tehran not building nukes; report says Iran to receive missile fuel shipment from China

Iran's vice president for strategic affairs, Mohammad Javad Zarif, gestures as he addresses the audience during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 22, 2025. (FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP)
Iran's vice president for strategic affairs, Mohammad Javad Zarif, gestures as he addresses the audience during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 22, 2025. (FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP)

DAVOS, Switzerland — Iranian Vice President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif on Wednesday sought to distance Iran from the Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assault on Israel, saying that Tehran had been caught by surprise by its proxy’s attack.

“We didn’t know about October 7,” Zarif, a former Iranian foreign minister said during an interview at the Davos World Economic Forum, referring to Hamas’s deadly onslaught that killed some 1,200 and resulted in the kidnapping of 251 hostages.

“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 claimed.

Zarif also asserted 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 said. “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.”

“The resistance is not dead,” Zarif claimed. “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 also downplayed 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 demanded.

Iran has spent years financing and providing sophisticated weapons, including missiles, drones, and rockets, to terror groups across the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and an assortment of militias in Iraq. All of them attacked Israel in the wake of the October 7 assault.

Zarif also denied widespread reporting that Israel took out much of the country’s air defense capabilities during an air offensive in October 2024, which 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 said. “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, denied that 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.

Atomic Energy Organization of Iran spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi (R) and Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharib Abadi (L), posing for a picture with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi (2nd L), in front of the gate of the Natanz nuclear enrichment plant in Iran’s Isfahan province, November 15, 2024. (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran / AFP)

“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 said.

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.

On Wednesday, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said Iran is “pressing the gas pedal” on its enrichment of uranium to near weapons grade, adding that Iran’s recently announced acceleration in enrichment was starting to take effect.

Zarif also spoke about newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump, saying that Iran hopes Trump will choose “rationality” in its dealing with the Islamic Republic.

“I hope that this time around, a ‘Trump 2’ will be more serious, more focused, more realistic,” Zarif said.

US President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on January 21, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Jim Watson/AFP)

In 2018, then-President Trump reneged on Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and re-imposed harsh US sanctions as part of his “maximum pressure” policy against the country.

In response, Tehran breached the deal in several ways, including by accelerating its uranium enrichment.

Trump has vowed to return to the policy he pursued in his previous term that sought use economic pressure to force the country to negotiate a deal on its nuclear program, ballistic missile program, and regional activities.

Concerns have grown among Iran’s top decision-makers that Trump might, in his second term, empower Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike Iran’s nuclear sites while further tightening US sanctions on its oil industry.

Those concerns, coupled with mounting domestic anger over economic woes, could drive Tehran toward engaging in negotiations with the Trump administration over the fate of its fast-advancing nuclear program.

Missile fuel from China

According to a separate report in The Financial Times, two Iranian cargo ships are set to transport a key ingredient for missile propellant from China to Iran in the coming weeks.

FT reported that the cargo on board the Golbon and the Jairan, some 1,000 tons of sodium perchlorate, could be used to manufacture fuel for hundreds of mid-range missiles, the report noted, citing intelligence from Western security officials.

A cleric walks past Iranian domestically-built missiles as he visits National Aerospace Park of the Revolutionary Guard, just outside Tehran, Iran, November 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

The officials who spoke to the paper did not know whether Chinese authorities were aware of the shipments.

Officials in Beijing’s embassy in Washington told FT that China is “not familiar” with the matter, while asserting that it is committed to “maintaining peace and stability in the Middle East and Gulf region.”

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