The head of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards reaffirmed on Thursday that Tehran was not involved in the October 7 attacks. He made this statement in Tehran at the funeral of an official of the organization killed in Syria. His remarks contradicted those of the IRGC spokesman, who had said the opposite the previous day.

The head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hossein Salami, denied any link between the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel and the death of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a US drone strike in January 2020.

He was speaking at the funeral of Razi Moussavi, an official of the organization killed on Monday in Syria in an Israeli strike, according to state media.

“Operation Flood of Al-Aqsa was a purely Palestinian operation, independent of any outside influence and separate from our revenge for the blood of the previous commander of the Guardians, Qassem Soleimani,” said the head of the mullah regime’s ideological army.

“It is undeniable that the resistance has many points in common, but each axis of the resistance acts independently in its movements,” added Salami.

He also pointed out that “the Ansar Allah Houthis are an independent movement, as is the resistance in Iraq. As for Hezbollah, despite its link with the axis of resistance, it takes its own decisions based on the interests of the Palestinian people,” he added.

Salami’s remarks contradicted those made by IRGC spokesman Ramazan Sharif a day earlier, who had said that Operation Al-Aqsa Flood came in response to Soleimani’s assassination.

“Our response to Moussavi’s assassination will be a combination of direct action and others carried out by the resistance front,” he had also specified.

Hamas was quick to deny this, insisting that the operation was entirely Palestinian.

Funeral With Pomp and Ceremony

Thousands of people attended Moussavi’s funeral in Tehran on Thursday.

His death came in the midst of a war in the Gaza Strip between Israel, Tehran’s sworn enemy, and Hamas, the Palestinian movement supported by the “resistance front,” of which Iran is a member.

Thousands of people gathered in the center of Tehran on Thursday, in Imam Hussein Square, chanting “death to Israel” and “death to the United States.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, met Moussavi’s family earlier on Thursday.

At the funeral, Salami hailed Moussavi as “one of the most experienced and effective Guardians commanders on the resistance front.”

Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes against its neighbor, mainly targeting Tehran-backed forces, saying it wanted to prevent Iran from gaining a foothold on its doorstep.

Malo Pinatel, with AFP