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A top Iranian military official on Sunday celebrated the “sacred wrath” waged by Hamas against Israel, saying that the massive surprise attack launched by the terrorist group over the weekend will ultimately result in the crumbling of the “Zionist regime.”
The sharp comments from Gen. Mohammad Bageri, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, underscore the deep ties between Tehran and leading anti-Israel organizations in the Middle East, most notably Hamas and Hezbollah.
Iran is a top financial backer of Hamas. Gen. Bageri left little doubt Sunday that key elements of his government fully support the weekend assault.
“The Palestinian nation, which has been suffering from imposed cruelty for decades, has now gained such great power with reliance on its young motivated generation and Islam that it has transfixed military analysts and strategists across the world,” he said, according to Iran’s state-run Fars News Agency, adding that the military operation was the result of a “sacred wrath” that the “Zionists” have provoked among the Palestinian people.
Just days earlier, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said the “cancer” of Israel will soon be eradicated.
“Today, the Palestinian movement is more cheerful than ever in the past seventy and eighty years, and the Palestinian youth and the anti-usurpation, anti-oppression and anti-Zionism movement are more cheerful, more lively, and more ready than ever,” he said last week, according to Fars. “God willing, this cancer will be eradicated at the hands of the Palestinian people and the resistance forces in the entire region.”
Saturday’s coordinated, multi-pronged attack by Hamas marked one of the deadliest days for Israel in decades. At least 600 people have been killed in Israel, according to the Associated Press. More than 300 have been killed in Gaza amid an unfolding response by the Israeli military.
The unfolding “war,” as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described it, has once again cast a bright spotlight on the relationship between Hamas and the government in Tehran. Hamas officials in the past have publicly thanked the Iranian government for providing them with arms, ammunition and other tools with which to wage war against Israel.
Against that backdrop, the Biden administration is facing fresh criticism that its Iran policy is aiding Hamas. Critics have taken direct aim at the recent deal to free up about $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets in exchange for the release of five U.S. prisoners who had been held in Iran.
Administration officials pushed back hard against that criticism and said none of that money was in Iranian hands, nor could it ever be funneled to Hamas in the future. But they also acknowledged the direct connection between Tehran and Hamas.
“There’s a long relationship between Iran and Hamas. In fact, Hamas wouldn’t be Hamas without the support that it’s gotten over many years from Iran,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ABC’s “This Week” program on Sunday.
“We haven’t yet seen direct evidence that Iran was behind this particular attack. … But the support over many years is clear. It’s one of the reasons that over the last couple of years, we have been resolutely working against Iran’s support for terrorism, for destabilizing actions in other countries.”
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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