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Silence on Israel’s actions serves as reward to regime: Iran
“Silence towards the [Israeli] regime’s recent actions is a kind of rewarding them. Therefore, the Islamic Republic of Iran reserves its right to take countermeasures based on international rules and procedures,” Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani told Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani in a phone conversation on Monday.
Bagheri Kani also said it is imperative to put an end to the Israeli regime’s “vicious” scheme to expand the scale of war in the region. The Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated by Israel in Iran’s capital on July 31, while he was in Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian.
In a telephone conversation with Slovenia’s Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon on Sunday, Bagheri Kani denounced the awkward silence of European countries on the killing of the Hamas chief, stressing that the Islamic Republic will definitely exercise its legitimate right to create deterrence against
Israel.
“The Islamic Republic is surprised by Europe’s silence as well as the absence of a UN Security Council statement in condemnation of the Zionist regime’s acts of aggression against Iran, Lebanon and Yemen. Moreover, European countries’ failure to condemn the killing of Hamas politburo head has raised questions for Iran,” the top Iranian diplomat stated. Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani called Israel’s assassination of Haniyeh as a “blatant violation” of international rules and regulations.
Kanaani said the assassination was a flagrant breach of the Islamic Republic’s territorial integrity and the political norms of the international community.
“In line with international law, Iran has the right to punish the aggressor. No one has the right to doubt Iran’s legal right to punish the aggressor and create deterrence against the usurping Zionist regime,” he added.He also said the international community must support Iran’s punishment of the Israeli regime. Kanaani added that an extraordinary meeting of the foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation will be held in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday at Iran’s request to discuss the issue. Also on Monday, the chief commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami said, “They think that through these measures [assassination of Haniyeh], they would succeed in prolonging their survival.”
“These [atrocities] are, however, holes that they (the Israelis) dug for themselves, and will gradually bury themselves in,” Salami stated, adding, “Once they received a strong response, they would understand that they have committed another miscalculation.”
Following the assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in a statement warned of a “harsh response” to the Israeli action and reaffirmed the Islamic Republic’s duty to avenge the blood of the resistance leader.