Iran said on Monday it has a “legal right” to respond to the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week, an attack blamed on Israel amid the Gaza war.
“No one has the right to doubt Iran’s legal right to punish the Zionist regime,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said at a regular press conference, referring to Israel.
He said Iran “does not want to escalate tensions in the region,” which have escalated since the Israel-Hamas war began in early October and escalated further after Wednesday’s attack in Tehran.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Israel killed Haniyeh using a “short-range missile” fired from outside his residence in the Iranian capital, where he had gone to attend the swearing-in ceremony of President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Iran and Hamas, as well as other Tehran-allied armed groups across the Middle East, have vowed to retaliate.
Israel has not commented directly on the killing, which came just hours after the military chief of Lebanese group Hezbollah, Fuad Shukr, was killed in an Israeli attack on Beirut.
There has been almost daily exchange of fire between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israeli forces since early October.
These high-profile killings have intensified calls for de-escalation, and world powers fear a wider regional war.
Nasser Kanani said on Monday: “We believe that strengthening stability and security in the region requires punishing the aggressors and creating preventive measures against the Zionist regime’s rebellious behavior and cross-border terror.”
Iran, which does not recognise Israel, has held talks with several Arab countries, including Jordan, Egypt, Oman and Qatar, since Haniyeh’s killing.
Tehran has repeatedly reaffirmed its “inherent right” to take action against enemy Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country is prepared at a “very high level” for any situation, whether defensive or offensive.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)