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Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said on Monday that his country would “definitely” respond to Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran is in no way seeking to expand the scope of war and crisis in the region, but this regime will definitely receive a response for its crimes and insolence,” Pezeshkian said during a meeting with Russia’s security council secretary Sergei Shoigu. He accused Israel of violating international laws by carrying out the killing in Tehran.
Iran’s acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani also addressed foreign ambassadors in a meeting at the ministry in Tehran, describing the attack as a “violation of Iran’s territorial integrity” that “clearly cannot remain unanswered”. He urged other nations not to show “indifference and appeasement in the face of evil”.
Iranian state television has intensified its coverage of the crisis, highlighting the need for a response. Citizens interviewed on the streets called for a decisive reaction to uphold the country’s dignity.
Israel and the region are waiting on Iran’s retaliation for the killing of Haniyeh, Hamas’s political chief, in Tehran last week, hours after he attended the inauguration of Pezeshkian.
Some Israeli supermarkets ran out of bottled water over the weekend, underlining the anxiety created by the killing, while residents of Beirut on Monday felt their homes shake from warplanes breaking the sound barrier — a common show of strength from the Israeli air force.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken told G7 counterparts on Sunday that Washington was prepared for an “imminent” attack, said two people briefed on the matter, as the US sent reinforcements to the Mediterranean to help defend its ally and lower the risk of a wider confrontation.
The general in charge of US forces in the Middle East, Michael Kurilla, was in the region over the weekend to help rally a coalition of allies similar to that which helped defend Israel in April, after the assassination of military officials in an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria led to Iran firing hundreds of missiles and drones to punish Israel.
Kurilla was in Israel on Monday for talks with counterparts there.
This time, Israel is again counting on “US leadership in forming a coalition of allies and partners to defend Israel and the region from a range of aerial attacks”, the country’s defence minister Yoav Gallant told US defence secretary Lloyd Austin, according to a statement.
However, Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said on Monday that the US military did not believe a regional war was “imminent”.
Iran was severely embarrassed at the killing of Haniyeh in state-provided accommodation while he was a guest of the president. The Islamic republic claimed over the weekend that he was killed in an attack involving a short-range projectile carrying a warhead with approximately 7kg of explosives, without specifying the origin or method of the attack.
Speaking at a press conference in Tehran, foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said “all evidence and signs indicate that the Zionist regime is behind the terrorist crime”, although Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
Kanaani said that, as Israel had “first and last responsibility” for the killing, it was “Iran’s right to act in the path of punishing the aggressor”.
Iran has made clear it will respond to the assassination, which came a day after Hizbollah military commander Fuad Shukr was killed in a targeted attack in Beirut that has been claimed by Israel.
In turn, Israel blames Hizbollah, the Lebanon-based militant group, for the attack on a football field in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights last month that killed 12 young people.
Hizbollah and Hamas, the militant group that carried out the October 7 assault on Israel, are both part of an alliance backed by Iran known as the axis of resistance.
Analysts believe Iran’s response could involve the parts of its axis launching attacks simultaneously. The alliance also includes Houthi rebels in Yemen and militia groups in Iraq and Syria.
Major General Hossein Salami, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, suggested on Monday that Israel had misjudged how Iran would retaliate. “When they receive a strong response, they’ll realise they’ve miscalculated,” he said in a public speech, without detailing potential actions.
Jordan’s foreign minister Ayman Safadi used a weekend visit to Tehran to call for calm, although his host has shown no signs of backing down from its vow for revenge.
Additional reporting by Felicia Schwartz in Washington
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