Iran’s Khamenei says avenging Haniyeh’s killing is Tehran’s duty

Avenging Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination is “Tehran’s duty” because it occurred in the Iranian capital, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday.

“With this action, the criminal and terrorist Zionist regime prepared the ground for harsh punishment for itself, and we consider it our duty to seek revenge for his blood as he was martyred in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said in a statement carried by official news agency IRNA.

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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also said the killing “will be met with a harsh and painful response.”

“Iran and the resistance front will respond to this crime,” it said in a statement, employing a term Tehran uses to refer to allied militant groups across the Middle East.

Separately, President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran will “defend its territorial integrity, dignity, honor, and pride, and will make the terrorist occupiers regret their cowardly act” of assassinating Haniyeh in Tehran.

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