Iran to respond to Haniyeh’s assassination with ‘comprehensive’ measures: analyst

TEHRAN: Iran’s retaliation against Israel for the assassination of the Hamas Politburo Chief Ismail Haniyeh will combine political and military means and will be coordinated with regional resistance forces, an Iranian political analyst said on Saturday.

Haniyeh and his bodyguards were killed early Wednesday when their residence was hit in Tehran, the capital of Iran. Iran accused Israel of orchestrating the attack and vowed to retaliate.

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In an interview with China Central Television (CCTV) in Tehran on Saturday, political analyst Hossein Kanani Moghaddam stated that Israel’s assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran was intended to create a new crisis to divert attention from internal conflicts within Israel.

“Israel responds to its domestic crisis by creating new crises. Since the beginning of the new round of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel has been in crisis internally and isolated on the international stage. So it tries to change the situation by creating crises in southern Lebanon or by carrying out terrorist acts to save itself from its earlier crisis,” he said.

Speaking about Iran’s response, Moghaddam said that Iran will combine political and military means to respond to Israel, while regional resistance forces will also take action against Israel in their own ways.

“Iran’s plan to deal with Israel is ‘comprehensive’ and will be implemented in stages, the last of which will be military action. This could increase tensions in the region. Iran will use diplomatic means to seek a solution against Israel, but also cyber, psychological, and electronic warfare. Iran will also take action against Israel in coordination with the resistance front. We will try to destroy Israel’s ability to make its next move,” he said.

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Some Iranian analysts believe that Israel’s assassination of Haniyeh crossed Iran’s red line, making retaliation imperative.

They also said Iran needs to get itself well-prepared beforehand as a favorable result from the action can help the country to establish military deterrence against Israel through retaliatory actions to prevent frequent provocations while Iran must avoid falling into Israel’s trap of becoming directly involved in a regional conflict, which could escalate the situation uncontrollably.