Iran’s Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Tuesday lauded Hamas’ attack against Israel, but denied any Iranian involvement in it, AFP reported.
"The supporters of the Zionist regime (Israel) and some people in the usurping regime have been spreading rumors over the past two or three days, including that Islamic Iran was behind this action. They are wrong," Khamenei said in a speech at a military academy.
"Of course, we defend Palestine, we defend the struggles," he added, urging "the whole Islamic world" to "support the Palestinians."
Khamenei said Israel has suffered an "irreparable failure" on both "military and intelligence" fronts.
"Everyone has spoken of the failure, I put the emphasize on its irreparability," he stated.
A Wall Street Journal report on Sunday claimed that Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas' attack and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday.
However, a senior Hamas official denied on Monday that Iran helped the terrorist organization plan its surprise attack on Israel.
Speaking to NBC News, the senior Hamas official, Ali Baraka, said, “It was a surprise to everyone, including Iran.”
Baraka, who is the head of Hamas’ National Relations Abroad, noted that Iran supports Hamas, but he insisted that “we did not inform them that there was an operation that would happen at dawn on Oct. 7.”
“After the operation began, we informed Iran,” he added.