Iran's Implausible Deniability

The terror state and its various proxy militias—including Hamas—are obviously acting in concert. Why won’t the U.S. admit it?

The Biden administration came into office with the pledge to take the U.S. off a "war footing" with Iran, which the incoming team said had characterized the term of its predecessor. "De-escalation," as the administration called it, is the way we would achieve peace in the region. Tehran would not be held to account for its malign activities, whether they were conducted directly or through its extensive regional network of proxies. If anything, the Biden team telegraphed, Iran would be rewarded.

As recently as September, the administration was congratulating itself on its approach: "the Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades," National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan famously declared. The slaughter of at least 1,200 Israelis, and more than 30 Americans, at the hands of Iranian proxies has not made a dent in the administration's worldview. On the contrary, the White House's overriding concern over the last month has been to artificially distance Iran from the Oct. 7 massacre and the subsequent attacks on U.S. bases and personnel in the region.

The separation is absurd on its face. This year alone, before and after Oct. 7, there have been dozens of meetings, in Lebanon and Iran, between Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the Iranian command. These groups, in addition to the Houthis in Yemen, and a host of Iraqi Shiite militias all belong to what they call the "axis of resistance." The axis is an Iranian creation: ideologically, financially, operationally, and strategically. Iran is the state power that undergirds this network of armed groups, providing them with funds, weapons, and guidance in the service of Iranian geopolitical interests. Tehran does not merely back these militias. To a huge degree, it controls them.

And yet, the administration has been at pains to deny Iran's involvement in the Oct. 7 massacre, pushing back against a series of media reports that highlighted Iran's role in the planning, training, and timing of the attack. The reports make clear that coordination between Iran and its so-called "joint operations room" in Lebanon (which includes Hamas, Hezbollah and PIJ) was constant, a fact made evident by the frequent visits to Beirut by top Iranian officials, especially Esmail Qaani, commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s (IRGC) Quds Force, in the months and weeks before Oct. 7. Hamas and PIJ leaders like Saleh al-Arouri and Ziad Nakhaleh, both of whom are based in Lebanon under Hezbollah's protection, held regular meetings in Beirut and in Tehran with Hezbollah's Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and the Iranian leadership.

Since then, Tehran's direct involvement has been even more visible. Qaani has been in Lebanon almost continuously since Oct. 8, overseeing the joint operations room. But none of that matters to the Biden administration. When asked about Iranian communication with Hezbollah during the ongoing attacks on Israel from south Lebanon, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said he wasn't "aware of anything overt." Apparently, the commander of the Quds Force camping out in Lebanon for the past month doesn't count....