Iran’s newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has pleaded with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to refrain from attacking Israel, warning of its devastating impact on his presidency, according to sources familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Extracts: Iran may rethink reprisals against Israel over killing of Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iran on 31 July 2024 Other Islamic countries are not openly backing military response by Tehran and more targeted action appears likely
Iran may be rethinking the scale and format of its planned reprisal against Israel after the assassination of Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh but is not likely to be put off by the absence of explicit support from Muslim states for an Iranian military response, officials have suggested
At a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah this week, there was a unanimous condemnation of the killing of Haniyeh, with members stating it was in flagrant violation of international law and of Iran’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security
But no formal collective support for an Iranian attack on Israel was issued and Pakistan’s foreign minister Ishaq Dar, in his remarks called for cool heads and perseverance with a diplomatic path – saying that the assassination must be avenged but that “we must not fulfil Benjamin Netanyahu’s design for a wider war”. He said the Israeli prime minister was seeking to set a trap
Iranian foreign minister Ali Bagheri, in an interview with Agence France-Presse, accused Israel – which has not commented on the death of Haniyeh – of wanting to “expand the war” in the region while judging that it has “neither the capacity nor the strength” to fight Iran
