The official funeral of the leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, killed in Tehran in a strike attributed to Israel, began early this Thursday, August 1 in the center of the Iranian capital. For the moment, no claim of responsibility or additional information on the instigators and the details of this strike.
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First, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khameneiaccompanied by President Massoud Pezeshkian, performed the funeral prayer over the coffin ofIsmail Haniyeh and his bodyguard, who were killed in a strike in the north of the capital. The thousands of people who gathered are accompanying the two coffins to Tehran airport, to be taken to Qatar, where the Hamas leader is to be buried.
This Thursday morning, all Iranian newspapers are headlined by these words which were pronounced by the Iranian supreme guide: ” blood revenge “A very clear message,” underlines our correspondent in Tehran, Siavosh Ghazi. Similarly, the Iranian defense official called his Turkish, Egyptian, Saudi and Qatari counterparts to say that theIran had a duty to respond to this attack, which was a violation of its territorial integrity. Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations even stated that Iran’s response will be ” firm and immediate “.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards have announced the death of Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesdaykilled along with a bodyguard in the residence where he was staying in Tehran, after attending the ceremony ofInauguration of reformist President Massoud Pezeshkian. According to Iranian media, he ” was in one of the special residences for war veterans in northern Tehran when he was killed by an aerial projectile » around 02:00 local time (22:30 UT Tuesday).
A ” dangerous escalation »
The assassination at the age of 61 of the political leader of Hamas, as well as an Israeli strike that killed the military leader of Lebanese Hezbollah, Fouad Chokr, near Beirut on Tuesday, have raised fears of a contagion of the war that has been raging for almost ten months in the Gaza Strip between Israel, sworn enemy of Iran, and Hamas, supported by Tehran. While all attempts at mediation have failed, the war has poisoned tensions across the Middle East between Israel on the one hand, and on the other hand Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Syria, including the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahusaid Wednesday night that Israel had carried out ” severe blows ” has his ” enemies ” in recent days, explicitly mentioning the elimination of Fouad Chokr but without commenting on the attack in Tehran.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed alarm at the attacks in Beirut and Tehran, which ” represent a dangerous escalation “, his spokesman said. As did US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who called for the continuation of ” efforts ” with a view to a ceasefire in Gaza, at a time when Qatar, the main mediating country, is wondering about the advisability of continuing the mediation. The United States, the first ally ofIsraelclaimed that the strikes in Tehran and Beirut ” did not help “to reduce regional tensions, while considering that there was no sign of an escalation” imminent “.
Read alsoDeath of Ismail Haniyeh: Another Name in the Long List of Assassinations Attributed to Israel?