Iran says has ‘legal right’ to punish Israel for Haniyeh killing

TEHRAN (AFP): Iran said Monday it has the “legal right” to respond to the assassination in Tehran last week of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.

“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 conference, referring to Israel.

He maintained that Iran “does not seek to aggravate tensions in the region”, which have soared since the Israel-Hamas war broke out 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 the Iranian capital which he was visiting to attend the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iran and Hamas as well as other Tehran-aligned armed groups in the Middle East have vowed to retaliate.

Israel has not directly commented on the killing, which came just hours the assassination of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah’s military chief Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike on Beirut.

Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israeli forces have traded near-daily fire since early October.

Calls for de-escalation have intensified following the high-profile killings, with world powers fearing an all-out regional war.

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 multiple Arab countries including Jordan, Egypt, Oman and Qatar since Haniyeh’s killing.

Tehran has repeatedly reaffirmed its “inherent right” to take action against foe Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country was at “a very high level” of preparedness for any scenario, “defensive and offensive”.