The continuation of the Gaza war will lead to a regional explosion, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told the Doha Forum on Monday, as he explained that the scope of the conflict had already expanded to include Lebanon and Yemen.
“At any moment there is a possibility of a big explosion in the region, one not controllable by any party,” he said as he spoke through an English language translator in a virtual interview conducted by CNN’s Becky Anderson.
The foreign minister pointed to attacks against US bases in Iraq and Syria, Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea, and the violence on Israel’s northern border as proof that regional violence had expanded beyond the Gaza border.
“At least every week, we receive a message from the US telling us that US bases in Syria and Iraq are targeted by some groups,” Amirabdollahian said. These groups are “defending the Arab and Muslim people of Gaza; that is why they are targeting US bases in Syria and Iraq.”
Israel, which he said is essentially a US regional proxy that cannot be considered a state, cannot defeat Hamas even if it fights them for the next 10 years, Amirabdollahian said.
Hamas is ready to fight for years and can produce and procure weapons, he explained.
Iran has supported Hamas’s October 7 infiltration into southern Israel, in which the terror group killed at lest 1,200 and seized some 250 hostages.
The Iranian foreign minister said the attack was the direct result of the creation of Israel 75 years ago, as he explained that the territory within its borders was considered to be occupied Palestinian land.
“We do not recognize Israel as a government. It has just been an occupying power for 75 years,” Amirabdollahian said as he called on the US to “abandon their unconditional and unwavering support for Israel.”
"Liberation movement"
Hamas is “a liberation movement against” that occupation, he said. Iran supports “resistance groups” such as Hamas working to free Palestinian territory, he explained, adding that this also included Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.
He accused Israel of using disproportionate force in Gaza, pointing to the Hamas figures of 18,000 Palestinian fatalities as a result of the war. Israel has said that at least 7,000 are Hamas fighters.
In discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general, Amirabdollahian said that the best resolution would be to put a referendum before the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim residents of that territory asking what they believed the resolution should be.
But he clarified that Iran does not believe in a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – and neither, he said, does Israel. Tehran wants to see a Palestinian state on all that territory and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants it all to be part of Israel, he said.
“The only thing we have in common is that neither of us believes in a two-state solution.”
Amirabdollahian accused Israel of wanting to forcibly displace Palestinians in Gaza to Egypt and those in the West Bank to Jordan.
Iran has also not supported normalized regional ties with Israel, he explained.
“Israel has been acting against the interest of the region. We have given documents to some of these countries that normalized ties, to show them that Israel is not their friend, but is their enemy.”
Reuters contributed to this report.