Iranwire – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has vowed punishment for Israel after Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, was killed in Tehran.
In response to the killing of Haniyeh, Khamenei declared that Israel had “prepared the ground for severe punishment.”
“With this action, the criminal and terrorist Zionist regime has paved the way for its own severe punishment,” said Khamenei.
He added, “We view it as our duty to avenge his martyrdom, which occurred within the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s newly inaugurated president, also warned Israel that it would “regret this cowardly killing”. He also pledged to strengthen the bond between Iran and Palestine.
“Yesterday, I raised his victorious hand, and today, I must take his body on my shoulders,” Pezeshkian said.
Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend Pezeshkian’s swearing-in ceremony.
The pre-dawn assassination of Haniyeh came just hours after Israel claimed to have killed a senior commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah in an airstrike on Beirut.