Iranian FM hosts Hamas terrorists in Tehran

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi hosted a meeting with senior Hamas officials in Tehran on Monday, the Islamic Republic’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reported.

According to the Iranian outlet, the Hamas delegation included Basem Naim, a member of the terrorist organization’s “political bureau” based in Qatar, as well as Osama Hamdan, a Lebanon-based senior official.

The issues discussed during the meeting were not released to the media.

Mehr noted that the terrorists were in the Iranian capital to participate in the Tehran Dialogue Forum, which was also attended by regional leaders, including Araqchi’s Omani and Qatari counterparts.

Documents seized in the Gaza Strip during the ongoing war reveal extensive coordination between Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah and Qatar in the years leading up to the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, shattering the perception that Hamas planned the assault alone.

Intelligence obtained from letters, conversations and meetings in Beirut and Tehran shows that Yahya Sinwar, Hamas leader in Gaza, and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas political chief based in Qatar, maintained continuous contact with Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and senior commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a detailed report by Israel’s Channel 12 News published last month.

Already in 2021, following the IDF’s “Operation Guardian of the Walls,” Sinwar began formulating an attack plan, with Iranian and Hezbollah backing, the documents show. Hamas requested $500 million from Tehran over two years to fund its preparations for the terrorist attack.

Nasrallah endorsed the goal of Israel’s destruction, while Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was said to have approved Hamas launching the attack without Hezbollah’s full participation.

As many as 500 terrorists affiliated with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, based in the Gaza Strip, trained in the Islamic Republic leading up to the Oct. 7 assault, The Wall Street Journal reported in late 2023.

Iran has officially hailed the attacks as a “success,” saying the murder of some 1,200 people, mainly Jewish civilians, was a response to the 2020 targeted killing of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad by the United States.

© JNS