Iran has rejected Western calls not to retaliate against Israel for the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran late last month.
“Such demands are excessive, lacking political logic and completely contradicting the principles and rules of international law,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement.
President Massoud Pezechkian, in a phone call with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer late on Monday, said Western silence about “unprecedented crimes against humanity” in Gaza and Israeli attacks elsewhere in the Middle East was “irresponsible” and encouraged Israel to endanger regional and global security, the state-run Iranian News Agency (IRNA) reported on Tuesday.
Iran and its allies blame Israel for Haniyeh’s killing on July 31 while he was in the Iranian capital for the inauguration of President Massoud Pezeshkian, just hours after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed a senior commander of Lebanon’s powerful Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. Israel has not publicly commented on its role in Haniyeh’s killing.
Western diplomats are scrambling to prevent catastrophe in a Middle East already strained by the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The White House has warned of a “major series of attacks” by Iran and its allies as early as this week, and has sent fighter jets, missile defence ships and missile-equipped submarines to the region to support Israel.
Analysts say Iran would almost certainly respond to an Israeli attack but would seek to avoid triggering an all-out war.
In April, two weeks after an attack on Syria’s Tehran embassy killed two Iranian generals, Iran launched hundreds of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles at Israel and damaged two airbases. Nearly all of the weapons were shot down before reaching their targets.
“Iran is hoping for a much more effective response than the April 13 attack,” said Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
One option for Iran would be to turn to its proxies in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Gaza, but with the exception of Hezbollah, the various members of Tehran’s “axis of resistance” may lack the capacity to inflict serious damage on Israel.
Hamas fired two rockets from the Gaza Strip towards Israel’s commercial centre Tel Aviv on Tuesday for the first time in months, causing no reports of casualties. One fell into the sea and the other reached Israeli territory, the Israeli military said.
New ceasefire talks are due to begin on Thursday, but an agreement is unlikely to be reached.
Far-right parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition are strongly opposed to any cessation of fighting in Gaza.
On Monday, ultra-nationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir ignored long-standing rules and led several hundred Israelis in singing Jewish hymns and performing a religious ceremony at a compound on high ground in Jerusalem’s Old City known to Muslims as Al-Haram al-Sharif.
Under the longstanding but uneasy “status quo” arrangement, Jews can visit but cannot pray at the site, the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest for Jews, who call it the Temple Mount.
The deliberate provocation appears to be aimed at derailing future negotiations. In a video recorded at the compound, Ben Gvir reiterated his opposition to any pause in the Gaza war. “We must win and not take part in negotiations in Doha or Cairo,” he said.
Netanyahu’s office said Ben Gvir’s visit was a “departure from the status quo” and that Israel’s policy on the Temple Mount had not changed.
The risk of a broader conflict with Iran and its proxies is growing amid continuing Israeli attacks on Gaza, where a Hamas-run health ministry official says some 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since the conflict erupted in October.
The war began when Hamas launched surprise attacks on communities in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Militants also captured 251 people, 111 of whom remain in captivity in the Gaza Strip, while the Israeli army said 39 were killed.
Pressure has been growing for a ceasefire in Gaza since Israeli forces carried out an airstrike on a school housing Palestinian refugees on Saturday, killing 93 people, emergency services in the Hamas-controlled area said. Israel said it targeted militants operating from the school and a mosque.
