Supreme leader says avenging Haniyeh’s assassination is Tehran’s duty as Iran announces three days of mourning.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has promised “harsh punishment” for Israel in retaliation for the killing of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
“The criminal and terrorist Zionist regime martyred our dear guest in our house and made us bereaved,” Khamenei said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that “it also prepared the ground for a harsh punishment for itself.”
He said it was Iran’s duty to avenge the assassination of Haniyeh, who was in the Iranian capital for the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian.
“We consider it our duty to avenge his blood in this bitter and difficult incident that happened in the territory of the Islamic Republic,” Khamenei said, as he offered his condolences to Haniyeh’s family and the Palestinian group.
Iran has announced three days of public mourning across the country for Haniyeh.
A funeral ceremony will be held in Iran on Thursday, after which Haniyeh’s body will be transferred to Doha, Qatar, Hamas said in a statement on its Telegram channel.
He will be buried in the Qatari capital on Friday, the group announced.
Israel has yet to comment on the attack but has previously promised to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders after the October 7 attack on southern Israel which killed 1,197 people and triggered Israel’s current deadly war on Gaza.
Pezeshkian promised that his country would “defend its territory” and make the attackers “regret their cowardly action”.
Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the attack showed that the “Zionist gang of criminals, murderers and terrorists” had no regard for international rules.
“Undoubtedly, this crime of the Zionist regime will face a harsh and painful response from the powerful and huge resistance front, especially Islamic Iran,” the statement read.
Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon, media’s Ali Hashem said the “big question” is what Iran will do in response to the attack on its soil.
“The repercussions are going to be big for the whole region. This could mean an Iranian attack on Israel. I cannot imagine what will happen next,” Hashem said.
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