Iran Is Attempting To Interfere In U.S. And Israeli Elections: Report

Iran has been reportedly engaged in a recent dual campaign of electoral manipulation against both Israel and the U.S., with the former holding legislative elections on Tuesday and the latter holding its midterm vote on November 3.

“War does not just mean missiles and guns when we are under their blockade … it also means we are prepared to disrupt their elections, their banking, their travel and all their ordinary systems. We are not in favor of any candidate anywhere, but we would like to see a divided America and a divided Israel,” an Iranian official cited by British outlet The Telegraph on Thursday said.

The official framed the interference campaign as a natural consequence of hostilities between the three nations, which began in February with joint strikes by Tel Aviv and Washington against Iran.

“We have been looking into ways to recruit agents in both the American and Israeli regimes’ election processes … powerful cyber groups have also been established to hack their election systems,” another Iranian official claimed in conversation with the British conservative outlet.

The news comes on the same day that Israel’s Central Elections Committee (CEC) announced a probe into allegations of potential foreign interference into elections for the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.

Although Qatar, which denies the reports, is allegedly the main subject of that particular investigation, senior Israeli officials had warned in the buildup to the election of the potential threat of Iranian influence.

“We have clear warnings from military intelligence and the Mossad that Iran and its proxies are considering ways to influence the elections,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Jerusalem Post on October 21, with just under a week to go until the vote.

Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet also announced on October 22 that it had removed various accounts from social media sites which they suspected to be associated with foreign interference campaigns.

Nevertheless, claims that foreign interference actually took place in Tuesday’s vote in Israel, whether by Iran or Qatar, remain unconfirmed: Dean Livine, the acting director for Israel’s Central Elections Committee, has said that “the Knesset elections were conducted lawfully. The integrity of the elections at polling stations was rigorously safeguarded.”

Despite this, Netanyahu has accused Israel’s Arab-majority political parties, who won 19 seats in Tuesday’s vote, of benefiting from foreign interference and therefore having “stole[n] the elections in Israel.”

U.S. President Donald Trump has also suggested in the past that Tehran would benefit from a Democrat victory in the midterms, accusing the Iranian regime in May of stalling in negotiations in the hope of getting better terms from Washington after the November vote.

However, the Iranian officials cited by The Telegraph suggested that accusations of Iranian partisanship were baseless: “for us it does not matter who wins or who loses any of the elections in America or Israel,” one official said.

“Whoever wins in Israel, they will still be the enemy. And in America, it would be good to see voters, who are angry at their warmonger ruler, make a decision that would bring peace to the world,” the official continued.