Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that Tehran did not participate in the Hamas attack on Israel, but praised Israel’s “irreparable” military and intelligence defeat.
Israel has long accused Iran’s clerical leaders of fomenting violence by supplying weapons to Hamas. Tehran says it provides moral and financial support to the group, which controls the Gaza Strip.
Support for the Palestinian cause has been one of the pillars of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution and one of the ways in which this Shiite-dominated country has emerged as a leader in the Muslim world.
Amirabdollahian, who last week accused Israel of seeking “genocide” by imposing a siege on the Gaza Strip, said an offensive would “open new fronts of resistance” in the Middle East.
“The responsibility for the possible opening of new fronts of resistance in the region and for any escalation of today’s war lies squarely with the United States and the Zionist regime (Israel),” Amirabdollahian said.
Iran’s foreign minister met Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday in Qatar, where they discussed the attack on Israel “and agreed to continue cooperating” to achieve the group’s goals, the Islamist group said in a statement.
Earlier, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi urged France to help “prevent the oppression” of Palestinians in a phone call with his counterpart Emmanuel Macron.