Iran rejects Western calls to drop threats against Israel

Photo: AFP A woman walks past a huge billboard depicting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (R) and former Palestinian Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (L) at Valiasr Square in Tehran on August 8, 2024. Iran accuses Israel of assassinating Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, a charge neither confirmed nor denied by the Jewish state.

Ahmad Parhizi – Agence France-Presse in Tehran

Published at 6:56 a.m. Updated at 12:08 p.m.

• Middle East

Iran on Tuesday rejected calls from Western countries to drop threats of armed retaliation against Israel, which it accuses of assassinating Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in late July.

The White House said a possible Iranian attack could have “an impact on discussions” planned for Thursday on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where the war was triggered on October 7 by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement against Israel.

US President Joe Biden and his counterparts from France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom called on Tehran on Monday to “drop its threats of a military attack against Israel”, at a time when the international community is increasing pressure to avoid a military escalation in the Gaza Strip. Middle East.

They warned of the “serious consequences” that an attack would have on the security of the region, where tensions have redoubled since the start of the war in Gaza, between Israel on the one hand, and Iran and the armed groups it supports, notably the powerful Lebanese Hezbollah on the other.

Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen have been threatening Israel with armed reprisals since the assassination on July 31 of the leader of Hamas, which they blamed on Israel, and that the day before of Fouad Chokr, the military leader of Hezbollah, killed in an Israeli strike near Beirut.

“The Islamic Republic is determined to defend its sovereignty” and “it does not seek authorization from anyone to exercise its legitimate rights,” reacted Tuesday Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani.

“Series of attacks”

Iran “will never yield to pressure […] but considers that it has the right to respond to the aggressors,” President Massoud Pezeshkian said Monday.

Washington said it anticipated “a series of significant attacks” that could occur “as early as this week” by Iran and its allies.

Fears of a regional conflagration have prompted many airlines to suspend flights to several Middle Eastern countries.

At Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, the flight board announced the cancellation of several flights on Tuesday. “There is no visibility, we can't predict anything,” lamented Chava Ben-Yehonatan, a 75-year-old Israeli retiree.

International pressure is also increasing to obtain a truce in the Gaza Strip, besieged for more than ten months, where the war has left nearly 40,000 dead according to Hamas.

The Israeli army continues its offensive, particularly in areas that it had claimed to control, but where it is faced with a resurgence of Hamas and its allies.

Hamas' military wing announced Tuesday that it had fired two rockets at Tel Aviv and its suburbs from Gaza, for the first time in more than two months. According to the army, one of them fell into the sea.

On Tuesday, an Israeli strike killed ten members of the same family east of Khan Younes, in the south of the Palestinian territory, according to a medical official. Only a three-month-old little girl survived.

According to witnesses, bombings also targeted two houses in al-Bureij, in the centre of the territory. “We have removed a body and are still looking for eight missing people,” Hassan Daou, a rescue worker, told AFP.

The international community has repeatedly expressed alarm at the human toll of the war. On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Palestinian Authority counterpart Mahmoud Abbas, who is visiting Moscow, that he was “concerned” about the deaths of Palestinian civilians.

“No delay”

France, Germany and the United Kingdom said Monday that “there can be no further delay” in negotiating a ceasefire.

Israel said it would send negotiators to resume talks on Thursday on a truce linked to the release of hostages held in Gaza, in response to a request from the mediating countries, Qatar, the United States and Egypt.

The talks are part of a three-phase plan announced on May 31 by Joe Biden and then presented as coming from Israel, which aimed to establish a lasting ceasefire in the territory.

This plan initially provided for a six-week truce accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Hamas demanded on Sunday the implementation of this plan, “rather than conducting more negotiations.”

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and considers it a terrorist organization, along with the United States and the European Union, after the attack on its soil that killed 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.

Of the 251 people kidnapped on October 7, 111 are still being held in Gaza, 39 of whom are dead, according to the army.

The Israeli retaliatory offensive on the Gaza Strip has left at least 39,929 dead, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government, which does not detail the number of civilians and fighters killed.