JEDDAH: Iran accused Israel on Thursday of wanting to spread war in the Middle East, as diplomatic efforts sought a regional de-escalation following the killings of Tehran-allied militant leaders.
Ali Bagheri, Iran’s acting foreign minister, told AFP that Israel had committed “a strategic mistake” by killing Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week — hours after the assassination in Beirut of Hezbollah’s military chief.
Although Israel has not admitted to killing Haniyeh, Iran and its allies have vowed to retaliate, setting the region on edge as the Gaza war raged on into its 11th month.
Israel seeks “to expand tension, war and conflict to other countries”, but has neither “the capacity nor the strength” to fight Iran, Bagheri said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at a military base on Wednesday, said Israel was “prepared both defensively and offensively” and “determined” to defend itself.
Haniyeh’s group named a successor on Wednesday — Yahya Sinwar, who Israel says had a key role in planning Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack that sparked the Gaza war.
Analysts believe Sinwar — Hamas’s leader in the Gaza Strip since 2017 — has been both more reluctant to agree to a ceasefire and closer to Tehran than Haniyeh, who lived in Qatar.
On the ground in Gaza, fighting continued on Thursday with the Israeli military issuing its latest evacuation order and rescuers and medics reporting at least 13 killed in strikes.
The front pages of some of Israel’s leading newspapers on Thursday cited “assessments” that Iran may be rethinking its course of action, reportedly in part due to US pressure.
Officials and leaders in the Middle East and beyond have called for calm, with Britain’s minister for international development, Anneliese Dodds, telling AFP on a visit to Jordan: “We must see a de-escalation”.
The United States, which has sent extra warships and jets to the region, has urged both Iran and Israel to avoid an escalation.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron spoke Wednesday with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian and later with Israel’s Netanyahu, telling both to “avoid a cycle of reprisals”, according to the French presidency.
Israel’s military chief Herzi Halevi told troops “we are not stopping” targeting the leaders of “our most dangerous enemies”, vowing to “find” and “attack” Sinwar too, according to an army statement.
Also on Wednesday, the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, meeting in the Saudi city of Jeddah, declared that Israel was “fully responsible” for Haniyeh’s “heinous” killing.
Bagheri said OIC members voiced support for Iranian retaliation.
“Western countries, who claim they have asked Iran to restrict its response... are not in the position to advise the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
The Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip has already drawn in Tehran-aligned militants in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
Lebanese Hamas ally Hezbollah, which has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli troops throughout the Gaza war, has vowed retaliation for military chief Fuad Shukr’s killing.
Israel said the Beirut strike that killed him was in response to deadly rocket fire from Lebanon last month on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
And in Yemen, the Iran-backed Huthis said Thursday their retaliation for a deadly Israeli strike last month on the Red Sea port of Hodeida was “inevitable and will come”. The Huthis, who have carried out maritime attacks since November in a campaign they say is in solidarity with Gaza, claimed a drone attack on Tel Aviv a day before the Hodeida strike.
A Lebanese government official told AFP on Thursday that “there are efforts to calm the situation” across the region including with a continued push to secure a Gaza truce after months of stalled negotiations.
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