JEDDAH: Iran’s acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri, has said that Israeli committed a costly “strategic mistake” by killing the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week.
In an interview with AFP on Thursday, Bagheri stated that the Ismail Haniyeh assassination will have severe consequences for Israel.
Bagheri’s remarks came after an extraordinary session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah, where the 57-member organization declared Israel “fully responsible” for Haniyeh’s death. Haniyeh, who resided in Qatar, was a key figure in negotiations to end the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Iran has vowed retaliation for Haniyeh’s killing, which has heightened tensions in the region. Bagheri accused Israel of attempting to escalate conflict and asserted that the country lacks the capability to engage in war with Iran.
He stated, “The Zionists are in no position to start a war against the Islamic Republic of Iran. They neither have the capacity nor the strength.”
The Israel’s war on Gaza that began on October 7 last year have so far left at least 39,699 Palestinians dead, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Furthermore, Hezbollah, Hamas’s ally, has vowed to retaliate for both Haniyeh’s killing and the death of its military commander, Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut.
