Marandi: 鈥淚ran did not know鈥�
Iranian professor Mohammad Marandi says 鈥淗amas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Ansar Allah 鈥� these are not Iranian proxies鈥�
An Iranian academic who advised his government during nuclear negotiations has denied that Tehran had prior knowledge of the Hamas attack on southern Israel which killed more than 1,200 people on October 7th last year.
Speaking to HARDtalk鈥檚 Stephen Sackur, Professor Mohammad Marandi said: 鈥淚 know enough to be able to say that Iran did not know. And the reason is that Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Ansar Allah -these are not Iranian proxies. These are Iranian allies. They have a relationship with Iran, which is friendly, which the different sides communicate regularly. They have a similar vision, an anti-colonial vision for the region. And each of them they make their own decisions.鈥�
Speaking of Hamas, which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK and other countries, Professor Marandi said: 鈥淭he Iranians have always supported them. I think it's quite clear that their defence capabilities and their tunnels and their ability to beat Israelis, and that that is what they have done over the past three months, is with Iranian help. There's no doubt about that. You ask the question whether that particular operation on that particular day was something that the Iranians knew about? What I'm saying is that these different entities in groups have their own agency, but the Iranians support them.鈥�
