Iran's IRGC Spokesman Breaks Ranks On Hamas, Soleimani
Contradicting a statement from the IRGC spokesman, its top commander, Hossein Salami, denied Iran's involvement in Hamas's October 7 invasion of Israel.
Contradicting a statement from the IRGC spokesman, its top commander, Hossein Salami, denied Iran's involvement in Hamas's October 7 invasion of Israel.
“The al-Aqsa Flood operation was completely a Palestinian operation. It was designed and implemented by Palestinians and no decision was made outside of Palestine,” stressed IRGC Commander, Salami, speaking during the funeral service for Razi Mousavi, the IRGC's man in Syria, killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike this week.
“Resistance in Iraq is part of the resistance front [in the region], but acts independently. In Lebanon, Hezbollah acts independently,” Salami went on to say.
However, his comments came a day after Ramezan Sharif, the spokesperson for the IRGC, said the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel was a retaliatory action for the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian regime’s top military and intelligence operator in the Middle East, who was killed in a US drone strike in January 2020 in Iraq.
“The Al-Aqsa Storm was one of the retaliations of the Axis of Resistance against the Zionists for the martyrdom of Qasem Soleimani,” Sharif stated on Wednesday as the contradictions from within the IRGC ranks continued, suggesting Tehran's ongoing denials may be losing traction. Iran has long supported Hamas, with financial and military aid. Last month, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was in Tehran meeting the Supreme Leader.
The Hamas militant group immediately rejected Sharif’s claim, insisting that the attack on Israel was carried out in response to “Israeli occupation and enduring hostilities against our people and holy sites,” in spite of the fact its top leaders had been in top level meetings with Tehran in the weeks and months leading up to the atrocity.
Trying to unravel the contradictions, on Thursday, Salami openly undermined the IRGC spokesperson’s remarks and said, “We have not yet avenged the assassination of Martyr Qasem Soleimani. We will do this in due time. We sincerely declare what we do and we are not scared.”
Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, the Islamic Republic officials have time and again made contradictory remarks about the conflict. On October 7, the Iranian government immediately praised the invasion and ordered street celebrations, with large banners erected within hours, suggesting Tehran had known in advance of the attacks which killed 1,200 mostly civilians and saw 240 or more taken hostage to Gaza.
However, following the escalation of the conflict and the US move to dispatch its warships to the region, Tehran officials toned down their public rhetoric, with many of them, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, repeatedly denying the Islamic Republic’s role in Hamas’s attack.
Meanwhile, Iran's proxy groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen continue to attack Israeli and American targets in the region. Iran's most powerful proxy, Hezbollah, has engaged in the heaviest clashes with Israel for almost 20 years, but has avoided a full-fledged war.
Experts view Hezbollah’s unwillingness to wage an all-encompassing war against Israel as Tehran’s conservative approach to the conflict. Though the Iranian officials vow “great blows” to Israel and the country’s imminent destruction, Tehran has so far refrained from launching any direct attack against Israel and its allies. However, just days ago, the US blamed Iran directly for an attack on a vessel caught up in the maritime front of the war in Gaza.
As recently as Tuesday, an explosion occurred near the Israeli embassy in New Delhi, India. The staff members sustained no injuries in the attack. Though no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, eyes turned once again to Iran and Revolutionary Guard extraterritorial Qods force (IRGC-QF) in the wake of other foiled plots such as one to attack the Israeli embassy in Baku, just a few months ago.
Earthquake mortality has been found to be higher in countries where corruption is high and in the past 30 years, 83% of all earthquake-related deaths have occurred in anomalously corrupt countries, according to a 2011 report.
In the aftermath of a natural disaster, deterioration of public institutions and a proliferation of inferior building stock can lead to more severe consequences.
As Iran is prone to natural disasters, the UN emphasizes the importance of adopting an effective long-term strategy but the details of mismanagement indicate that tragedies such as the tragedy of the Bam earthquake may repeat themselves.
Authorities reported the Bam earthquake death toll a massive 17 years after the tragedy. Until then, the numbers were estimates and not based on official data. The authorities in Bam resorted to “traditional” healing methods in the first nights following the earthquake, which the Rouydad24 website identified as “opium” being given to survivors.
Further examples of poor management can be found in the book by Bijan Daftari, the head of the Iranian Red Cross Society (IRCS) Rescue and Relief Organization at the time of the earthquake. The authorities failed to locate the epicenter of the earthquake for hours, he said.
Many could not imagine earthquakes occurring in that region since it was the home of Bam City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site dating back to the Achaemenid era (6th to 4th centuries BC) that had stood strong for centuries. Furthermore, all communication with the city of Bam was disrupted, and the airport was temporarily inaccessible.
Municipalities, fire departments, hospitals, medical centers, and police stations in Bam city were destroyed, as well as key municipal officials, such as the mayor. In other words, virtually all of the city's infrastructure and vital arteries were destroyed.
The arrival of rescue forces took hours, and the only effective force for rescue was the remaining healthy victims, who, according to another IRCS official Jamal al-Dini, had not received sufficient training. Daftari also pointed out that the government made a mistake by involving the IRGC in the disaster management process.
“Given that the IRGC did not have a pre-defined plan for such cases, and no exercise had been conducted with other organizations, this decision made the response process difficult for some time,” Daftrai wrote in his memoir.
Iran experiences an average of 10,000 earthquakes per year, according to the UN which defines the only acceptable response to such disasters as long-term reconstruction, recovery, and risk reduction. It has been demonstrated that earthquake-resistant construction can prevent tragedies from occurring such as is found in Japan and Chile.
After a 7.3-magnitude earthquake in Ezgeleh southwest Iran in 2017, the Iranian authorities were once again inadequately prepared to deal with the ensuing crisis.
In a report titled "Crisis in Crisis Management'' in 2017, Shahrvand newspaper quoted Hamidreza Eskash, a crisis management lecturer and consultant, as saying: "Crisis management in Ezgeleh was no different from what happened in Bam. The number of facilities and resources had increased a bit, and we saw more helicopters in the sky.”
This statement is supported to a large extent by the report of the Housing, Road and Urban Development Research Center on the Ezgeleh earthquake. The report states that the destroyed structures were not suitable for seismic zones, the same thing which happened in Bam and its surrounding villages.
Mismanagement still prevails in logistics preparation and response to the crisis, which is the result of managers' ideological viewpoints. A memorandum of understanding signed with the Qom seminary to reduce natural disasters reflects the view of the leaders of the Islamic Republic.
With experts warning of a possible tremor in Tehran with a population of 11 million and located in a seismic region, any large earthquake will result in a disaster of epic proportions, unless the government begins to seriously prepare itself.