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Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran after attending the inauguration of the country’s new president, Iran and the militant group said early Wednesday.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination but suspicion quickly fell on Israel, which has vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas over the group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the United States had not been aware of and had no involvement in the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran that both Hamas and Iran have blamed on Israel.
Speaking in Singapore, Blinken declined to speculate on the impact Haniyeh’s death would have on efforts to secure a cease-fire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. But he said the incident made it more important to get a deal to ease the suffering of civilians, free hostages held by Hamas and prevent the conflict from escalating.
“First, this is something we were not aware of or involved in,” Blinken said in an interview with Channel News Asia, according to a transcript provided by the State Department.
“I’ve learned over many years never to speculate on the impact that an event has had on something else. So I can’t tell you what this means,” Blinken said.
Meanwhile Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said his country had a "duty to take revenge" after Hamas' political leader was killed in Tehran.
"However, following this bitter, tragic event which has taken place within the borders of the Islamic Republic, we believe it is our duty to take revenge," Khamenei said Wednesday.
As news of the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, begins to spread on Wednesday morning, global leaders have started to react, condemning his death and calling it a “heinous assassination.”
In a statement, Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs “condemned in the strongest terms Israel’s assassination of the head of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement in Palestine (Hamas), Ismail Haniyeh, may God have mercy on him, in the Iranian capital, Tehran, in violation of international law and international humanitarian law, and an escalatory crime that will push towards more tension and chaos in the region.”
Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also condemned Haniyeh’s death, calling it a “heinous assassination” and reiterated the need to stop Israel from escalating regional tensions.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told state-owned RIA news agency that the killing of Haniyeh “is an absolutely unacceptable political murder, and it will lead to further escalation of tensions."
