Top FBI official: Iran is puppet master of Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis

“Iran is the puppet master” of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Yemen’s Houthis, FBI Executive Assistant Director of the National Security Branch Robert Wells said on Monday.

Speaking at the Reichman University International Institute for Counter-Terrorism conference on world terror, Wells said, “No one country can fight the terrorist threat alone. It is as persistent and complex as ever. The brutality of October 7 cannot be overstated, and the attacks changed the trajectory of the terrorist threat.”

“The US shares in this loss, with its citizens also among the murdered and the kidnapped. It’s attacks like these that remind us of the importance of maintaining our steadfast partnership…The terrorist organizations in the region understand that their success hinges on the support of the Iranian regime. Together, we can meet the challenges before us,” said Wells.

Further, he noted that in this new threat era, Iran has mounted plots to attack top US officials on American soil.

Wells, who leads thousands of agents, analysts, and professional staff combating the most complex US national security threats on a daily basis, stated, “the current threat to US national security is at an all-time high. This assessment is shared around the world,” by other countries feeling a heightened sense of threats.

He warned of not only standard terrorist organizational threats but increased “racial, anti-government and anti-authority violent extremists.”

International interference from China and Russia

Next, the senior FBI official cautioned to be on guard for “China and Russia’s increasingly brazen attempts to disrupt the democratic process.”

With all of these simultaneous threats, Wells said he “finds strength in the resilience of [American-Israeli] families” he recently visited with and who survived the October 7 attacks or whose family members were killed or taken hostage.