Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Tehran has hidden motives
By Wolfram Weimer
October 10, 2023, 11:17 a.m
Israel’s government sees Iran behind the brutal attacks on their country. Tehran itself makes no secret of its support for Hamas and Hezbollah. There are hidden motives for this. A key player wants to “see bodies of Americans.”
Looking back, it was a declaration of war. Iran’s religious leader and head of state Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a devastating threat against Israel last week: “This cancer will, God willing, be finally eradicated by the Palestinian people and the resistance forces in the entire region,” Khamenei threatened last Tuesday. The threat was published in Tehran on Saturday, a few hours later Hamas rockets flew and the massacre in Israel began. In his declaration of annihilation, Khamenei also boasted that the Palestinian movement today is “more energetic, more vibrant and better prepared than ever.”
After Information from the Wall Street Journal“Tehran was not only active as a financier and ideological sponsor of Hamas and Hezbollah. Officers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards had been carefully planning the major attack together with Hamas in Beirut since August. The final meeting also took place in the Lebanese capital, it is said, citing anonymous sources from Hamas and Hezbollah. In addition to the Revolutionary Guards, Hamas and Hezbollah, at least two other militias supported by Iran were involved in the meetings. The attack was finally approved by Tehran on Monday last week, according to the sources On Tuesday, Khamenei gave his annihilation speech.
Iran is now hastily rejecting this portrayal by the Wall Street Journal. As an ally of Hamas, we welcome the attacks in Israel, said the Iranian mission to the United Nations. However, the government in Tehran is not directly involved in the actions of the radical Islamic militia. The Iranian government is apparently worried that Israel will now take direct military revenge on Tehran. Washington also knows that the immediate escalation of war between Israel and Iran is now openly discussed and reassures that there is “yet” no evidence of the Islamic regime’s direct involvement in the attack.
70 million Iranian dollars for Hamas
But the Americans also know that the radical Islamists in the Gaza Strip can only fire thousands of rockets and drones at Israel with Iranian help. Tehran not only pays several million dollars a month for Hamas alone. The Revolutionary Guards also train in the construction of rockets and the use of the Iranian Shehab drones, which are now being used against Israel. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV last year that Iran had paid a total of $70 million to the Palestinian group to help it develop missiles and defense systems.
Khamenei at an army celebration surrounded by military men.
(Photo: via REUTERS)
In fact, since the founding of the state in 1979, the Islamic Republic has not only been Israel’s self-declared archenemy. The political and spiritual leadership in Tehran aggressively denies the Jewish state the right to exist. Since the 1990s, Iran has been deliberately building up Shiite militias as an “axis of resistance” against Israel. The regime in Tehran is spreading terror and arming Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon to expose Israel to a pincer attack.
Tehran has three hidden motives for launching the attack now. First, a foreign policy conflict distracts from domestic unrest. The freedom movement, particularly among Iranian women, has been shaking the regime for months and undermining its authority. Just a few days ago, the imprisoned Iranian women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi received the Nobel Peace Prize – an international disgrace for the mullahs’ regime and a threatening initial spark for new internal resistance. The attack on Israel by Hamas therefore seems like a brutal response to the Nobel Prize decision. Motive: distraction.
Secondly, Saudi Arabia and Israel are on the verge of a historic rapprochement under the mediation of the USA. There was even talk of a peace agreement. From Iran’s perspective, the three arch-enemies would have joined forces and shifted the balance of power in the Middle East to the disadvantage of Tehran and the Palestinians. Just a few days ago, Israel’s Tourism Minister Haim Katz made his first official visit to Saudi Arabia. Shortly afterwards, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi followed and symbolically celebrated the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles in Riyadh.
Netanyahu presented a map to the UN General Assembly that showed Israel surrounded by its new and potential allies. Iran saw itself being outdone. With the war that has now begun, Tehran is destroying the new ties because a peace agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia becomes impossible in the middle of a war. Motive: sabotage.
Thirdly, the war in Ukraine ensures that Tehran sees the opportunity as geostrategically favorable. The USA is distracted and militarily tied down. In addition, Iran has established a new military alliance with Russia and is supplying the Russian invasion forces in Ukraine with drones. For Russia, a war in Israel also acts as a welcome distraction and weakening of Western forces. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyya met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for talks a year ago. According to the Kremlin, the meetings at the time were also “about weakening the West.” Motive: alliance logic.
Israel is also considering attacking Iran directly
Since the conflict situation with regard to Iran is much greater than the violence around the Gaza Strip, military analysts fear an imminent escalation. On the one hand, Hezbollah has opened a second front with attacks from Lebanon. On the other hand, a massive strike by Israeli ground troops against the Gaza Strip is expected. Israel’s government is also considering attacking Iran directly with missiles or aircraft. Mainly to destroy the nuclear facilities there. Israel sees its very existence threatened by Iranian nuclear bombs.
Even before the Hamas massacre, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Iran as the “most important enemy” and repeatedly hinted at military action if Tehran continued its nuclear program. Now that Iran’s auxiliary forces have attacked in turn, Israel may feel justified in carrying out an airstrike without further notice. There is therefore a high level of alarm in Washington. US President Biden has announced the immediate deployment of a carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean.
The Americans are particularly concerned about the intentions of Esmail Qaani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which is responsible for foreign operations. Qaani leads the Al-Quds Force, an elite unit specializing in foreign missions with 10,000 to 15,000 armed men. According to intelligence information, he also led the decision-making meeting on the Hamas massacre at the Iranian embassy in Beirut. Qaani has been positioning himself as the new war leader in the region for some time.
He wanted to use Hamas’s pro-Palestinian mass demonstrations in Qatar for his own benefit. Some time ago, Hanijah called out to the protesters that Hamas had not yet used all the forces at its disposal and that “resistance is the shortest route to Jerusalem.” Apparently Qaani is interested in escalating the conflict. The major general was once the deputy of Quasem Soleimani, who was killed by American drones, and threatened on Iranian television that “God Almighty” would take revenge. “Wait, you’ll soon see corpses of Americans all over the Middle East.”