At the Davos World Economic Forum, Iran’s Vice President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif says Tehran was caught by surprise by Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“We didn’t know about October 7. Actually we were supposed to have a meeting with the Americans on [the nuclear deal’s] renewal on October 9, which was undermined and destroyed by this operation,” he says during an interview.
The top official asserts that Israel has failed in its Gaza war objectives.
“Right now as you look at Gaza… Netanyahu did not achieve his goal of destroying Hamas, Hamas is still there. Israel had to come to a ceasefire,” he says. “I wouldn’t suggest anybody start rejoicing over destroying Hamas as well as the Palestinian resistance, or cutting Iran’s arms, because the resistance will stay as long as they’re occupied.”
He goes on: “The resistance is not dead. I can tell you that the wishes for the resistance to go away have been based on a misrepresentation, a framing by Israel, that this is not an Israeli-Palestinian issue but an Israeli-Iranian issue.”
Zarif also denies widespread reporting that Israel took out much of the country’s air defense capabilities during an air offensive in October 2024 that was a retaliation for two Iranian missile and drone barrages on the country.
“The story about destroying our air defense is a story and there is a reason behind it,” he says. “We suffered [some damage], but it didn’t mean that we lost our air defense.”
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