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A top Iranian official has claimed that Iran was caught by surprise by Hamas’s October 7th attack on Israel.

Some shit you should know before you read: On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched an unprecedented and coordinated assault on Israel, breaching border defenses, infiltrating communities, and carrying out mass killings and abductions. Over 1,200 people were killed, and 251 hostages were taken in what has been described as one of the deadliest days in Israel’s history. Hamas defended its attack on Israel, framing it as a response to Israel’s “oppression of the Palestinian people for decades. Israel has claimed that Hamas could not have executed such a complex and large-scale operation without external support, particularly pointing to Iranian involvement in terms of funding, training, and supplying advanced weaponry. Simultaneously, others have questioned how Israel, with its extensive intelligence and surveillance capabilities, failed to anticipate the attack.

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What’s going on now: While speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Iranian Vice President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif claimed that Iran had no prior knowledge of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. He said, “We didn’t know about October 7, adding that the attack disrupted a planned meeting between Iranian and American officials on October 9 to discuss renewing the nuclear deal.  

Zarif also criticized Israel’s war objectives in Gaza, arguing that they had failed to destroy Hamas. “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 added, “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.”

Despite claims from many Western countries, including the United States, that Iran controls a network of Middle Eastern proxies like Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Hamas, Zarif dismissed these allegations, challenging the moderator to ‘Find a single instance when these groups, which are, I think, erroneously called Iranian proxies, operated on our behalf.’

This all comes as many anticipate that President Donald Trump will reinstate his “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran by imposing new sanctions and increasing economic and political pressure. Trump has vowed to return to his hardline approach, which previously included harsh sanctions that crippled Iran’s oil industry. Iranian officials fear that Trump’s policies may also empower Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

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