TEHRAN: Iran on Monday said it has the “legal right” to retaliate to the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week, an attack blamed on Israel amid the war in Gaza.
“No one has the right to doubt Iran’s legal right to punish the Zionist regime”, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told a regular news briefing, referring to Israel.
He added that Iran does not seek to escalate tensions in the region, which have increased since the Israel war broke out in Gaza in early October and rose further since Wednesday’s attack in Tehran.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Israel killed Haniyeh using a short-range projectile launched from outside his residence in Tehran. Haniyeh was in Iran to attend the oath-taking ceremony of President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Israel has not directly commented on the assassination, which came just hours after the killing of Hezbollah’s military chief Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike on Beirut. Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged near-daily fire since early October.
Calls for de-escalation have soared after the high-profile killings, with global powers fearing an all-out regional war.
Nasser Kanani on Monday said: “We believe the consolidation of stability and security in the region will be achieved by punishing the aggressor and creating a deterrent against the adventurous behaviour and extraterritorial terrors of the Zionist regime”.
Iran, which does not recognise Israel, has held talks with Jordan, Egypt, Oman and Qatar since Haniyeh’s killing. Tehran has repeatedly reaffirmed its undeniable right to take action against Israel.
Meanwhile, the Gaza health ministry on Monday said that Israeli relentless bombardment has killed at least 39,623 Palestinians, mostly women and children in the besieged enclave since last October 7. A ministry statement added that some 91,469 other people have been wounded in the assault.
