JEDDAH: Israel committed a costly “strategic mistake” with its killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week, Iran’s acting foreign minister told AFP in an interview on Thursday.
“The act that the Zionists carried out in Tehran was a strategic mistake because it will cost them gravely,” Ali Bagheri said one day after attending an extraordinary session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah.
Although Israel has not commented on Haniyeh’s death, Iran has vowed to retaliate, setting the region on edge.
Bagheri accused Israel of wanting “to expand tension, war and conflict to other countries,” while asserting it was not in a position to fight Iran.
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“The Zionists are in no position to start a war against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said.
“They neither have the capacity nor the strength.”
The meeting on Wednesday of foreign ministers from the 57-member OIC produced a declaration holding Israel “fully responsible” for the “heinous” killing of Haniyeh, who lived in Qatar and was a major player in talks to end the war in the Gaza Strip.
The war began with Hamas’s October 7 attacks on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
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Palestinian fighters seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,699 people, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and fighters deaths.
Hamas’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah has also pledged to retaliate for Haniyeh’s killing and that of its military commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike in Beirut hours earlier.
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