Iran Reluctant To Join Israel-Hamas War

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

TEHRAN/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Iran’s supreme leader has reportedly told the leader of Hamas that his nation won’t enter the Israel-Hamas war amid fears the armed conflict will spread throughout the Middle East.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei apparently made the comments during his recent meeting with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran,

Khamenei said Iran – a longtime backer of Hamas – would continue to lend the group its political and moral support but wouldn’t intervene directly, according to Iranian and Hamas officials cited by Reuters news agency.

There has been frustration in Iran and the terror groups it supports about the secrecy surrounding the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel that killed 1,200.

Suddenly, Hamas’ allies were informed about the worst atrocities against Jews since the Holocaust, or Shoah. While officially supporting Hamas, they had little time to prepare for Israel’s inevitable retaliatory strikes. “We woke up to a war,” a Hezbollah commander told Reuters.

Yet the unfolding crisis marks the first time that the so-called Axis of Resistance – a military alliance built by Iran over four decades to oppose Israeli and American power in the Middle East – mobilized on multiple fronts at the same time.

HEAVIEST CLASHES

Hezbollah engaged in the heaviest clashes with Israel for almost 20 years. Iran-backed militias targeted U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria. And even Yemen’s Houthis launched missiles and drones at Israel.

The war is testing the limits of the regional coalition whose members – which include the Syrian government, Hezbollah, Hamas, and other militant groups from Iraq to Yemen.

They have differing priorities and domestic challenges while at the same time seeking to exterminate the Jewish people and Israel, analysts said.

While Iran supports groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah fighting Israel, it can’t afford a war against Israel at a time when it also deals with social unrest after years of Western sanctions over its nuclear program.

In the current crisis, realpolitik may prevail for Tehran, noticed Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think-tank.

“Iran has shown a four-decade commitment to fighting America and Israel without entering into direct conflict. The regime’s revolutionary ideology is based on opposition to America and Israel, but its leaders are not suicidal; they want to stay in power,” Sadjadpour told Reuters.

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