Iran Admits to Arming Hamas with Advanced Warheads

An official from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps said that its homemade Fajr-5 warheads are in the hands of Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, according to the Associated Press.

It has long been known that Hamas has Fajr-5s in its arsenal, but rarely has Iran publicly admitted to supplying the weaponry. The Fajr-5 has an estimated range of over 50 miles. They are able to reach Tel Aviv from the Gaza Strip.

“Palestinian resistance missiles are the blessings of Iran’s transfer of technology. We need to transfer defensive and military technology to Palestinians so they can build weapons under the blockade and defend themselves,” said Iran’s Secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council Mohsen Rezaei, who served as a former commander of the Revolutionary Guard. “I’ve requested [President] Rouhani to provide air defense Systems to Gaza so that Palestinians can defend themselves against invading planes.” He continued, “The Americans in recent days approved about $300 million to strengthen Iron Dome. You should provide air defense systems to Palestinians to be able to defend their people against aerial bombardment.”

Rezaei advised that capturing Israeli soldiers would result in victory for Hamas: “Getting their soldiers captured is the weak point of Israelis. Should two or three be captured, all Zionists will surrender.”

Iran received its designation from the US State Department as a State Sponsor of Terrorism largely because it has aided and abetted jihadi terror groups in the Middle East. Israel’s neighboring jihadi groups in Hamas and Shiite Lebanon-based proxy Hezbollah are known to have been armed and financed by Iran for decades.

The newest US State Department Country Report on Terrorism said of Iran:

Iran has historically provided weapons, training, and funding to Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups, including the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), although Hamas’s ties to Tehran have been strained due to the Syrian civil war. Since the end of the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, Iran has also assisted in rearming Hezbollah, in direct violation of UNSCR 1701. Iran has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in support of Hezbollah in Lebanon and has trained thousands of its fighters at camps in Iran. These trained fighters often use these skills in support of the Assad regime in Syria.

Iran’s state sponsorship of terrorism worldwide remained undiminished through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), its Ministry of Intelligence and Security, and Tehran’s ally Hezbollah, which remained a significant threat to the stability of Lebanon and the broader region. The U.S. government continued efforts to counter Iranian and proxy support for terrorist operations via sanctions and other legal tools. The United States also welcomed the EU’s July 2013 designation of Hizballah’s military wing as a terrorist organization.