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.
“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.
Despite mounting fears of an escalation in the region and calls for restraint from Washington, Bagheri told AFP that OIC members voiced support for Iranian retaliation.
“Those we have spoken to yesterday, whether in phone calls or during in-person meetings, all of them stressed the Islamic Republic of Iran’s right to respond to this terrorist crime,” he said.
“Western countries, who claim they have asked Iran to restrict its response, need to answer questions and are not in the position to advise the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
The war in Gaza 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.
Palestinian militants 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 militant deaths.
Yahya Sinwar, the alleged mastermind of the October 7 attacks, was named head of Hamas this week following Haniyeh’s death.
Analysts believe Sinwar has been both more reluctant to agree to a Gaza ceasefire and closer to Tehran than Haniyeh.
Bagheri hailed Sinwar’s appointment on Thursday in a statement published by Iran’s foreign ministry.
“This selection at the current critical moment brings hope, cohesion, authority and victory for the Hamas movement, the heroic nation of Palestine and the axis of resistance,” he said.
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.
Bagheri said that Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups in the region, including Yemen’s Huthi rebels, had “similar goals” but would make independent decisions on how to pursue them.
“We have similar goals but, in the field, the resistance movement acts based (on) its own… understanding of the situation and its interests,” he said.
An Iranian operation targeting Israel would be “exactly in line with the preservation of the security and stabilisation of the region,” he said.
Bagheri called on Washington and other countries to cease sending arms to Israel that could be used in Gaza, and said economic aid and diplomatic relations with Israel should also be severed.
“The countries who are providing arms and equipment, countries who have economic ties with the Zionist regime, countries who have diplomatic ties with the Zionist regime which is carrying out so many crimes, they need to come and answer why this situation is continuing,” he said.