Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani told a meeting of foreign ambassadors in Tehran yesterday that Israel is taking aim at regional and international peace and security by having assassinated Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, as the regime considers conflict to be only way for its survival. “The Israeli regime’s terrorist action to assassinate Martyr Haniyeh has taken aim at regional and international stability and security, and the Zionist regime believes that the only way to maintain its survival is to incite war and spread conflict among regional countries and against Palestinians,” Bagheri Kani said, reported IRNA.
“Haniyeh’s cowardly assassination is a clear example of arbitrary killing and gross violation of human rights. Ismail Haniyeh was attacked in Iran while he was an official guest of the Islamic Republic to attend the inaugural of the President [Masoud Pezeshkian]. The Zionist regime’s assassination of Haniyeh is actually considered an unjustified and unlawful violation of Iran’s national sovereignty,” Bagheri Kani continued. “This terrorist act, due to its nature and consequences, is not less than illegal use of force, and it is quite clear that such aggression cannot go unanswered and the Islamic Republic is authorized and entitled to respond in order to defend its interests, territorial integrity and sovereign rights. And our response will be definite and decisive.”
He also criticized the U.S., the U.K., and France for blocking action in the UN Security Council, in blocking a resolution against Israel for assassinating Haniyeh. Considering these conditions, Bagheri Kani said, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s duty towards its national security and territorial integrity requires the country to act as it sees best, and adopt and apply an appropriate response to this dangerous and aggressive adventurism.
