Iran will ‘certainly’ retaliate against Israel for Haniyeh killing, new president says

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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that Tehran would “certainly” retaliate against Israel for the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran does not seek to expand the scope of war and crisis in the region, but this regime [Israel] “There will certainly be a response to their crimes and insolence,” Pezeshkian said during a meeting with Russian security council secretary Sergei Shoigu.

His warning came a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told G7 counterparts that Washington was prepared for an “imminent” attack, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The United States has sent reinforcements to the Mediterranean to help protect Israel and reduce the risk of a larger conflict.

Washington also held talks with regional leaders and officials on Monday in an effort to ease tensions.

“We are engaged in intense diplomacy almost around the clock with a very simple message: all sides must refrain from escalation, all sides must take steps to reduce tensions,” Blinken said.

“The really important thing is that all parties find a way to reach an agreement, not find excuses to delay or say no. It is urgent that all parties make the right choices in the hours and days ahead,” he added.

But in Tehran, Iranian officials have stepped up threats and rhetoric against Israel.

Iran’s acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani told a meeting of foreign ambassadors that Haniyeh’s killing was a “violation of Iran’s territorial integrity” and “obviously cannot go unanswered”.

Iranian state television has also stepped up coverage of the crisis, stressing the need for a response.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for Haniyeh’s killing in Tehran last week, hours after he attended Pezeshkian’s presidential inauguration.

But Israel and the region were bracing for Iranian retaliation as both the republic and Hamas blamed the Jewish state for the assassination.

Some Israeli supermarkets ran out of bottled water over the weekend, adding to the anxiety caused by the killings, while Beirut residents felt their homes shake on Monday as fighter jets broke the sound barrier – a common show of force by the Israeli air force.

The top U.S. general in charge of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Michael Kurilla, visited the region to help assemble a coalition of allies similar to the one that helped defend Israel in April, after a suspected Israeli attack on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria that killed several senior Iranian commanders and led Tehran to fire hundreds of missiles and drones at the Jewish state.

Kurilla was in Israel on Monday for talks with his counterparts there.

This time, Israel is again counting on “US leadership in forming a coalition of allies and partners to protect Israel and the region from a range of air attacks,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, according to a statement.

Iran was deeply embarrassed when Haniyeh was killed at his state-provided residence while he was a guest of the president. The republic announced at the weekend that he was killed in an attack involving a short-range projectile carrying a warhead of about 7kg of explosives, without specifying the source or method of the attack.

Speaking at a press conference in Tehran, foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said “all evidence and signs point to the Zionist regime being behind the terrorist crimes”, although Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.

Kanaani said that since Israel “bears first and final responsibility” for the killing, “Iran has the right to act in a way that punishes the aggressor.”

Iran has made clear it will respond to the assassination, which comes a day after Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr was killed in a targeted attack in Beirut for which Israel claimed responsibility.

In turn, Israel blamed Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militant group, for an attack last month on a soccer stadium in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 young people.

Hezbollah and Hamas, the militant groups that carried out the attack on Israel on October 7, are both part of an Iran-backed alliance known as the axis of resistance.

Analysts believe Iran’s response could include parts of its axis of influence attacking at the same time. The coalition also includes Houthi rebels in Yemen and militia groups in Iraq and Syria.

Major General Hossein Salami, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, suggested on Monday that Israel had misjudged how Iran would retaliate. “When they receive a strong response, they will realize that they miscalculated,” he said in a public speech, without detailing potential actions.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi used a weekend visit to Tehran to call for calm, although the host country showed no signs of backing down from its vow of revenge.

Additional reporting by Felicia Schwartz in Washington