"For decades, the Iranian regime has worked closely with far-left, far-right and Islamist groups across Europe and North America."

"Following the October 7th attacks, Tehran has poured money ad logistical support into anti-Israel and pro-terror rallies, encampments and civil disorder."

"We've uncovered evidence ... where the Iranian regime appears to operate mosques, activist and student groups that are deeply involved in pro-terror demonstrations, alongside Hamas-aligned groups."

Middle East Forum

 

"Radical co-operation [between Iran, Libya and Syria, countries] hostile to Israel's existence [work] to encourage the emergence of revolutionary, anti-Western [groups around the world]." 

"Iran is the most implacable foe and will remain the most effective and dangerous state sponsor of terrorism over the next few years [in activities from small-scale to global-scale operations]." 

CIA analysis, 2018

 

"As the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7, 2023, Iran immediately surged support to Hamas with its now well-honed technique of combining targeted hacks with influence operations amplified on social media, what we refer to as cyber-enabled  influence operations."

"Iran's operations were initially reactionary and opportunistic. By late October, nearly all of Iran's influence and major cyber actors focused on Israel in an increasingly targeted, co-ordinated and destructive manner, making for a seemingly boundless 'all-hands-on-deck' campaign against Israel."

"Influence operations grew increasingly sophisticated and inauthentic, deploying networks of social media 'sock puppets' as the war progressed. Throughout the war these influence operations have sought to intimidate Israelis while criticizing the Israeli government's handing of hostages and military operations to polarize and ultimately destabilize Israel."

Microsoft Threat Analysis team

The Iranian regime and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants channelled funding into student protests in Canada, the U.S. and Europe after the October 7 attacks on Israel, Warren Kinsella writes in his new book The Hidden Hand. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images/File

 

Western politics have been targeted for decades by Iran seeking influence or destabilization of governments in the West. The depths of Tehran's success in its anti-Western campaign still remains unrecognized by the very targets it preys upon.  Isabel Vincent in 2024 wrote in the New York Post: "The Iranian regime is funnelling money and its influence into anti-Israel college campus protests across the US., often through buzzily named organizations -- and many who join the protests don't realize who is really behind them". 

 

What has also been behind them is the influence of the Tehran-friendly, Muslim Brotherhood-supporting, Hamas and Hezbollah welcome-honoured-guests-oil-rich Qatar. Through its influential media arm, Al Jazeera publishing in Western media airspace, and the ostentatiously-generous Qatari funding of American colleges and universities, Qatar and its pro-Iran, Muslim Brotherhood messaging has the eyes and ears of U.S. government and academia, a 'friendly' Gulf nation backing the Iranian regime.

 

While the Islamic Republic of Iran is notorious for supporting and generously funding terrorist groups, it is in Qatar where those terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah chief executives make their palatial, state-supported and -protected homes, where they make the decisions and their subordinate officials in Gaza and Lebanon relay the orders from above, authorizing action on the part of their terrorist operatives.

 

A new report from Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub suggests Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is waging an online campaign.  Carson Elm-Picard / MS NOW; Morteza Nikoubazl / NurPhoto via Getty Image; Photos courtesy of X

 

The axis of Shia domination includes the Houthis in Yemen and the Shia militias in Iraq devoted to the Islamic Republic, venerating the Ayatollahs and swift to respond to the orders of the al Quds division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. All now being decimated, leaders picked off, missile-launching sites bombed, nuclear installations flattened and the entire apparatus of the foremost sponsor of Middle East terrorism under constant bombardment by U.S. and Israeli fighter planes.

 

An infamous Iranian Revolutionary Guard cyberwarfare group named Cotton Sandstorm uses fake online accounts  with names like 'Jewish Peace Advocate', for the purpose of spreading anti-West, anti-Israel propaganda, according to Microsoft's Threat Intelligence team whose investigation revealed the fake accounts' existence in 2024. 

 

A protester holds a placard with an image of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei (centre R) and Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtada Khamenei (centre L) during an annual protest, this year a static protest, held by pro-Palestinian group Al-Quds in central London on March 15, 2026.

(photo credit: JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP via Getty Images)

 

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, shut down a sophisticated Iranian influence operation run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Iran, alongside Hezbollah, was running fake accounts across TikTok, X and Meta's platforms, according to Meta's Threat Disruption Center. Israeli cyber intelligence flagged an IRGC-controlled front company as the source of threats through emails and texts against Israeli athletes at the Paris Olympics. 

 

Following the April protests in Iran, Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, openly incited global anti-Israel protests. Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, now departed and deeply mourned by his Shia-terror devotees, posted alongside videos of Western student protesters on X: "See what is happening in the world. In Western countries, in England and France, and in states across the United States itself, people are coming out in huge numbers to chant slogans against Israel and America."

"U.S. and Israel's reputation has been ruined. They truly have no solution."

 

He was destined to become part of the solution when he was assassinated on the first day of the February 28 start of the U.S.-Israel aerial bombardment of Tehran, along with many of the country's top leadership. Israel's Air Force, with prior intelligence guiding them, dispatched them all in an airstrike of a  fortified compound where the Iranian leadership was meeting to confer over their next moves in the shadow of a potential invasion, which still took them by surprise, never thinking it was so imminent.  

 

Probal Rashid / LightRocket / Getty

"I believe we should rely on the ability of Arabs and Muslims to invest in the changes we are witnessing, specifically the Western students in the demonstrations in the West."

"There are Arab students who are demonstrating in the West, and this is something we can understand. But the Western students who are demonstrating in support of Palestine -- we rely on our ability to invest in this positive activity into the future e... We should invest in the students."

"We need to enter the heart of Western societies."

Hezbollah legislator Mohammad Raad on Russia Today **

 **The Hidden Hand: The Information War and the Rise of Antisemitic Propaganda: Warren Kinsella