Israel has not responded directly to the killing of Ismail Haniyeh (File)
Tehran, Iran:
Iran said Monday it has the “legal right” to respond to last week’s killing in Tehran of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, an attack blamed on Israel during the Gaza war.
“No one has the right to doubt Iran’s legal right to punish the Zionist regime,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said at a regular news conference, referring to Israel.
He asserted that Iran is “not trying to aggravate tensions in the region,” which have risen since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in early October and have risen 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 the Iranian capital he was visiting to attend the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Iran and Hamas, as well as other Tehran-linked armed groups in the Middle East, have vowed to retaliate.
Israel did not immediately comment on the killing, which came just hours after the assassination of Fuad Shukr, the military leader of the Lebanese group Hezbollah, during an Israeli attack on Beirut.
Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel forces have exchanged fire almost daily since early October.
Calls for de-escalation have grown louder after the high-profile killings, with world powers fearing an all-out regional war.
Nasser Kanani said on Monday: “We believe that the consolidation of stability and security in the region will be achieved by punishing the aggressor and creating a deterrent against the adventurous behavior and extraterritorial horrors of the Zionist regime.”
Iran, which does not recognize Israel, has held talks with several Arab countries since Haniyeh’s killing, including Jordan, Egypt, Oman and Qatar.
Tehran has repeatedly reaffirmed its “inherent right” to take action against enemy Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country was at “a very high level” of preparedness for any scenario, “defensive and offensive.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
