Iran experts continue to express surprise and confusion that Iran’s Quds Force could be a part of such an amateurish and bungled operation.
“It was very extreme and very odd, but it was also very sloppy,” observed Juan Zarate, deputy national security adviser for terrorism in the Bush administration. “If you look at what they have done historically, they can put operatives on their targets and execute. They usually don’t outsource, but keep things inside a trusted network.” Volker Perthes of the German Institute for International and Security affairs said: “I don’t regard it as impossible but rather improbable.” Such an act would signal “a major escalation against the United States, of the kind that hasn’t happened since the Iranian Revolution.” It would be “almost an act of war.” Indeed.
