REPORT: Iran helping Hamas to fire rockets at Israel while negotiating with Biden administration
Al Manar News, a Lebanese news service owned by Hezbollah, reported on Friday that the Hamas hostilities against Israel were coordinated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from a “chamber of military operations” in Beirut. In an interview with Al-Manar TV, Ibrahim Al-Amin, the editor-in-chief of the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, explained that the Hamas’ terrorist operations were overseen by officers from Hezbollah, IRGC, and Hamas from that location. According to the report, the Commander of IRGC’s Al-Quds Force, General Esmail Qaani, visited Lebanon twice to attend the chamber meetings.
“Hezbollah transmitted weaponry and ammunition to Gaza and moved a number of Palestinian Resistance officers out of the Strip during the aggression, according to Al-Amin,” the report stated. “The Islamic Resistance also provided the Palestinian factions with the needed data about the movements of the Israeli occupation military, which frustrated the enemy’s plot to ambush the Palestinian fighters near the Gaza border, adding that drones were employed to reach this goal.”
Even more disturbing was the report’s claim that “had ‘Israel’ expanded its aggression, the entire axis of resistance would have confronted it.”
Direct Iranian support of recent Hamas rocket attacks against Israel was confirmed by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week on Lebanon’s pro-Hezbollah al-Mayadeen TV.
In the interview, translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Sinwar claimed that Hamas had “greatly developed its capabilities” thanks to Iran providing “a lot of money, equipment and expertise” directly to the group’s military arm, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
It should be noted that in February, shortly after taking office, President Biden rescinded former President Donald Trump’s restoration of UN sanctions on Iran, revitalizing the Islamic republic’s economy, a move that he promised not to make until Iran agreed to reduce their nuclear activity. The sanctions relief amounted to an immediate payout of $90 billion. The sanctions relief came as part of Biden’s election pledge to return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal.
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