UN Security Council countries condemn assassination of Hamas leader, call for diplomacy
Kyiv • UNN
Members of the UN Security Council condemned the assassination of Ismail Khania in Iran and called for diplomatic efforts. Iran blamed the United States and Israel, threatening to retaliate, and Palestine called for an end to the escalation in the Middle East.
UN Security Council (UNSC) members have condemned the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and called for intensified diplomatic efforts to prevent an all-out war in the Middle East. Iranian Ambassador to the UN Amir Saeed Iraniani blamed the United States for Haniyeh's assassination. UNN reports this with reference to Al Jazeera.
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An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council was held on Wednesday, when Iran and Hamas accused Israel of Haniyeh's death and vowed revenge. Israel did not recognize itself as responsible for the terrorist attack in Tehran.
At the UN Security Council meeting, Palestine said that the international community must stop Israel from dragging the Middle East into an “abyss,” while China, Russia and Algeria condemned Haniyeh's murder. The United States, the United Kingdom and France raised the issue of Iran's support for destabilizing forces in the region, and Japan said it feared an all-out war in the Middle East.
“Israel has been the oppressor, torturer and murderer of Palestinians for decades, and it is a longstanding destabilizer of our region,” said Feda Abdelhadi Nasser, Deputy Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations. “It must stop,” she said, calling for accountability for Haniyeh's murder, as well as for ”the killing and wounding of more than 130,000 Palestinian children, women and men over the past 300 days of horror and hell in Gaza.
Iran's Ambassador to the UN Amir Saeed Irani said that Tehran has consistently shown maximum restraint, but reserves the right to respond decisively to Haniyeh's murder. He called on the UN Security Council to condemn Israel and punish it with sanctions.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the inalienable right of self-defense in accordance with international law to respond decisively to this terrorist and criminal act whenever it deems necessary and appropriate,” Iranian said.
Irani blamed the United States and Israeli leaders for Haniyeh's murder, as well as for “inciting war.
“The responsibility of the United States as a strategic ally and the main supporter of the Israeli regime in the region cannot be ignored in this heinous crime. This act could not have taken place without U.S. sanctions and intelligence support,” said Iraniani.
