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Al-Arabia – The chief commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Thursday retracted a statement made by an IRGC spokesperson regarding the motive behind Hamas’ October 7 attacks against Israel, following a rare spat between the Palestinian group and its primary backer.
IRGC spokesman Ramezan Sharif had claimed on Wednesday that the October 7 attacks were “one of the acts of revenge for the assassination of General Soleimani.” Hamas promptly denied this, saying that all of its actions are “in response to the presence of the occupation and its continued aggression against our people and our sanctities.”
Speaking at a funeral procession in Tehran for Seyed Razi Mousavi, a senior Iranian commander killed in Syria, the IRGC’s chief commander Hossein Salami said that the October 7 attacks – dubbed “Al-Aqsa Flood” – were independently planned and executed by the Palestinians, with no involvement from non-Palestinian parties.
Salami said: “Since the spokesman of the IRGC was yesterday quoted as saying that the Al-Aqsa Flood operation was revenge for [Soleimani’s killing], I want to clarify that these two issues are separate. Al-Aqsa Flood is independent of our efforts to avenge [Soleimani’s] blood.”
Mourners attend the funeral of Seyed Razi Mousavi, a senior commander in the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who was killed on December 25 in an Israeli strike in Syria, in Tehran, on December 28, 2023. (AFP)
Soleimani, who for over two decades headed the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the IRGC, was killed in a US airstrike in Iraq in January 2020. Tehran has consistently pledged to avenge his death.
Iran, a key source of financial and military support for Hamas, has praised the October 7 attacks while denying any involvement in their planning or execution.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which governs Gaza, in retaliation for its October 7 attacks. Israeli officials say the attacks killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and around 240 people were taken hostage.
According to health authorities in Gaza, Israel’s air and ground campaign has killed more than 21,000 people, most of them women and children.
Salami said Israel’s killing of Mousavi in Syria was due to Israel’s “incapacities.”
The IRGC said in a statement on Monday that Mousavi was killed in an Israeli “missile attack.” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi issued a message the same day, warning that Israel “will certainly pay for this crime.”
A handout picture provided by the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on December 28, 2023, shows him praying next to the coffin of Seyed Razi Mousavi, a senior commander in the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who was killed on December 25 in an Israeli strike in Syria, in Tehran. (AFP)
Salami said Mousavi’s revenge “will be nothing but the destruction of the Zionist regime (Israel).”
Earlier on Thursday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei met with Mousavi’s family and led a prayer over his body.
Mousavi was in charge of providing “logistical support to the Axis of Resistance in Syria,” the IRGC statement said, referring to a network of regional militant groups supported by Iran. He was also a “companion” of Soleimani, it added.
Iranian state news agency IRNA described Mousavi as one of the Quds Force’s most experienced advisors. It said he was killed in an Israeli attack in Sayyida Zeinab south of Damascus.
Israel’s military chief, asked on Tuesday about Mousavi’s death, declined to comment but said Israeli forces work throughout the region.
In recent years, Israel has conducted hundreds of airstrikes against both Iranian-backed groups and Syrian military forces inside Syria.
Iran, a staunch ally of President Bashar al-Assad, has played a key role in the Syrian conflict since its beginning in 2011, dispatching thousands of Iranian and foreign fighters to back the Syrian regime.
