During a visit to Beirut Friday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that new fronts could open if Israel continues its “war crimes and humanitarian siege on Gaza.”
In response to Hamas’ massive surprise attack on Israel on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a “complete seige” of Gaza, cutting off electricity, food, fuel and water in the territory, and Israel’s Energy Minister said there would be no humanitiarian break in the blockade until all hostages taken by Hamas are freed.
According to Amir-Abdollahian, his remarks were in response to a question from Western officials, whom he did not name, about the possibility of new fronts opening up in the Iran-Hamas war.
“Naturally with the continuation of Israeli war crimes and the humanitarian siege of Gaza and Palestine, any decision and possibility by other members of the resistance movement is probable,” the Iranian minister said.
By “resistance movement,” Amir-Abdollahian was referring to groups that are opposed to the state of Israel, including the terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah as well as armed groups in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.
While in Beirut, Amir-Abdollahian met with Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah.
His remarks came hours after the United States and Qatar agreed to cut off Iran from $6 billion in funds that had been unfrozen last month as part of a prisoner swap for five wrongfully detained Americans. Qatar had been charged with overseeing the money’s use strictly for humanitarian purposes as a stipulation of the swap agreement.
On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeated U.S. assertions that there’s no “direct evidence” linking Iran to Hamas’ assault Saturday. And in fact, specific intelligence collected by the U.S. this week suggested that top Iranian officials were caught by surprise by Hamas’ strike.
However, U.S. officials have stated that Iran was complicit in the assault, in that its clerical rulers have stoked violence by supplying arms to Hamas.
On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen suggested the door remains open to possible punitive measures against Iran, including additional sanctions.
