While it isn’t clear whether Iran was directly involved in the unprecedented terrorist attacks on Israel, the Islamist regime has consistently been the largest supporter of Hamas and other terrorist groups involved in the attack.
U.S. and Israeli officials maintain that they still haven’t confirmed Iran’s involvement. Iranian officials have denied direct involvement but voiced support for the attack.
Regardless, Iran has provided robust support both to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another anti-Israel terrorist group that participated in the Oct. 7 attack that left more than 900 Israelis dead.
The day after the attack, Abu Obaidah, spokesman for Al-Qassem Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, gave credit to Iran for enabling the massacre.
“We thank the Islamic Republic of Iran who provided us with weapons, money, and other equipment,” he said in a video. “It gave us missiles to destroy Zionist fortresses and helped us with standard anti-tank missiles.”
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told Al-Jazeera last year that Iran paid $70 million to help the group develop missiles and defense systems.
He identified Iran as the largest sponsor, though he said other countries give it money, too.
Iran also funds the Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon with some $700 million a year, according to the report. Hezbollah has voiced support for the attack on Israel but hasn’t officially joined it, though a handful of rockets were launched from southern Lebanon into Israel in recent days.
The Iranian regime considers the state of Israel illegitimate and has long advocated for its elimination, funding various proxy forces that align with that goal.
The Biden administration has been trying to soften relations with Iran in a quest to revive the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal that President Donald Trump nixed in favor of comprehensive sanctions in 2018.
Over the past year, the Biden administration has opened Iran’s access to billions in energy revenue previously blocked due to sanctions. Last month, the administration agreed—officially as a part of a prisoner swap deal—to unfreeze $6 billion from Iranian oil sales that were previously stuck in a South Korean bank. While critics have argued that Iran used the money to fund the Israel attack, others, including the Biden administration, have said that the money was only allowed to be spent on food and medicine and that it’s been so far sitting idly in a Qatar bank.
Twenty Republican senators pointed out in a letter that restricting the use of that specific $6 billion for humanitarian isn’t sufficient, as it still frees up other monies for the regime.
“Allowing $6 billion to flow into Iran’s economy, even if the purpose is for humanitarian aid, allows the Iranian regime to reallocate even more funds to supporting terrorism,” they said in the Oct. 9 letter. The senators urged President Joe Biden to freeze the $6 billion again.
Because of the sanctions, Iran’s economy has been harrowed by inflation reaching as high as 70 percent in the past year. The number is a rough estimate because the regime has kept a close hold on economic indicators for propaganda reasons.
A major part of the Trump administration’s sanctions scheme aimed at starving Iran of dollar reserves, leading to a single dollar costing Iranians 500,000 riyals, compared with some 33,000 in 2017.
These economic woes have led to shortages of goods and, in turn, to domestic unrest. The regime needs dollars not only to import food and medicine to keep its people from revolting, but also to fund its military interests. Arms dealers expect to be paid in dollars, as do its terrorist proxies, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah. The regime thus has to carefully plan how to spend whatever dollars it gets its hands on.
Iranian officials have indicated that the unfreezing of the $6 billion allows them to reallocate other money previously budgeted for food and medicine. But this isn’t the only money that has been freed up for the regime.
In June, the Biden administration agreed to release $2.7 billion that Iraq owed to Iran for gas and electricity. That money was also meant to be restricted to humanitarian needs.
The day before the attack, the Central Bank of Iran announced that Luxembourg had released $1.7 billion in previously frozen funds after a ruling by the tiny duchy’s supreme court.
