Tehran, Oct 9 (EFE).- Iran’s mission to the United Nations denied Tehran’s involvement in the recent attack on Israel by Hamas, which has already caused more than 1,000 deaths and started a new war between Palestinians and Israelis.
“We emphatically stand in unflinching support of Palestine; however, we are not involved in Palestine’s response, as it is taken solely by Palestine itself,” Iran’s UN mission in New York said in a statement on Sunday.
“The resolute measures taken by Palestine constitute a wholly legitimate defense against seven decades of oppressive occupation and heinous crimes committed by the illegitimate Zionist regime,” it added.
The media in the United States has accused Tehran of helping plan the attack since August and giving the green light for its execution.
Members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard have been involved in helping Hamas plan and carry out the attacks on Israel, according to sources from Hamas and Hezbollah cited by the Wall Street Journal.
However, the US government has said there is no evidence of Iran’s alleged involvement in an unprecedented attack by Hamas on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Iranian government celebrated the attack on Israel with fireworks and congratulatory messages, lending support to the “legitimate defense” of the Palestinian people.
Days before the attack, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had posted on social media that “the Zionist regime is a cancer that is about to be exterminated by the Palestinian people.”
The Islamic Republic of Iran and Israel are known to be staunch enemies, posing a mutual existential threat to one another, while also competing for regional hegemony and waging a covert war with cyber attacks, assassinations and sabotage.
As a part of this conflict and to expand its regional influence, Tehran lends support to groups such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the Palestinian movement Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Houthi rebels in Yemen.
More than 700 people have been killed in Israel in the war with Gaza militias that began with a surprise Hamas attack on Saturday, while the death toll in Gaza has risen to 436. EFE
jlr/sc
