The Daily Telegraph, October 26, Con Coughlin
For a country that claims it had no direct involvement in planning the Hamas massacre against Israel, Iran appears to be doing its level best to escalate the conflict well beyond the confines of Gaza.
In the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s barbaric assault on Israel on October 7, there was much speculation that such a sophisticated operation could not have been carried out without recourse to Iran’s renowned expertise in the realm of global terrorism. But after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, denied that Tehran had any involvement in the attacks, Western intelligence officials were forced to concede there was scant evidence of direct Iranian complicity.
The only suggestion that Iran, and its Hezbollah allies in southern Lebanon, had helped with the planning of the assault was the admission by Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader, that the money the terror group had received from Tehran had been central to its ability to develop the terrorist infrastructure that was used to devastating effect against Israel.
But Tehran’s reticence about claiming the credit for organising the worst terrorist attack the Jewish state has suffered in its history certainly does not apply to its other activities in the region. They appear to be a deliberate attempt to provoke a broader escalation in the conflict.
Apart from maintaining its financial support for Hamas, which is said to be worth $100 million a year, Iran has been accused of instigating border clashes in northern Israel between Hezbollah and the Israeli military. Iran’s efforts to maintain its supply lines to Hezbollah through the network of military bases it has established in neighbouring Syria has led to Israel conducting a series of air strikes against Iranian targets in the country.
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