Iran Helped Hamas Plan Surprise Attack On Israel As Biden Administration Pursued Tehran Appeasement

Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas’s Saturday surprise attack on Israel and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday, Wall Street Journal reported citing senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Iran-backed militant group.

The operation, involving air, land, and sea incursions, marked the most significant breach of Israel's borders since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

These plans were developed during meetings in Beirut, where officers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps(IRGC) and representatives from several Iran-backed terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, refined the details, the WSJ report said.

The attack resulted in death of over 700 Israeli and foreign citizens, making it one of the most devastating attack on the Jewish nation in the recent history.

The assault was reportedly timed to coincide with internal political turmoil in Israel and aimed to disrupt US-brokered negotiations. These negotiations were progressing towards normalising relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, a development perceived as threatening by Iran.

This comes weeks after the US cleared the path for the release of five American citizens detained in Iran by issuing a blanket waiver for international banks to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar without fear of sanctions.

In addition, as part of the deal, the Biden administration agreed to release five Iranian citizens held in the US.

The $6 billion was Iranian money that had been frozen in South Korean banks. After Washington, under former President Donald Trump, placed a total ban on Iran's oil exports and sanctions on its banking sector in 2019, these Iranian oil revenues were blocked in Seoul.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed off on the sanctions waivers in September, a month after US and Iranian officials said an agreement in principle was in place.

The waiver drew criticism from Republicans and others who said the deal will boost the Iranian economy at a time when that country poses a growing threat to US troops and allies in the Middle East.

Further, most of the Republican candidates eyeing party's 2024 US Presidential nomination have slammed the Biden administration  nominee tried to link Biden's Iran deal to the attacks on Israel, with some alleging, that he or US taxpayers funded the terror acts by Hamas in the Jewish nation.

In response, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that Iran has not yet been able to spend a single dollar of the $6 billion in funds that were unfrozen in a US-Iran prisoner swap in September.

Blinken also said he had "not yet seen evidence that Iran directed or was behind this particular attack, but there's certainly a long relationship."

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations said the Islamic Republic stood in support of Gaza’s actions but didn’t direct them.

"The decisions made by the Palestinian resistance are fiercely autonomous and unwaveringly aligned with the legitimate interests of the Palestinian people," the spokesman said.

"We are not involved in Palestine’s response, as it is taken solely by Palestine itself," he added.