Iran today rejected the ‘impudent’ calls from the West to de-escalate its threat against Israel over the alleged killings of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut last month.
The Iranian foreign ministry said calls to stand down from Britain, France and Germany ‘lack political logic and contradict principles of international law’, after the three powers made a statement yesterday urging calm and restraint.
But sources close to the regime indicated that they would only strike if peace talks due to restart tomorrow fail. No timescale was given for how long Iran would wait before taking action.
Haniyeh was killed with a ‘short-range projectile’ fired outside his guesthouse during a visit to Tehran on July 31, according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IGRC), prompting threats of retribution against Israel. Israel has not claimed responsibility.
Israel was responsible for the assassination of Hezbollah leader Fuad Skukr in Beirut several hours prior, drawing outcry from the Lebanon-based Iranian proxy group – and potentially throwing a hostage deal into jeopardy.
As tensions simmer, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have approved a multi-front battle plan against Tehran and Hezbollah, limiting troops’ travel abroad as they brace for an attack in the coming days – and prepare to retaliate.
Iran has vowed revenge on Israel for the attack on Iranian soil against Haniyeh late last month
The US has urged the USS Abraham Lincoln (pictured, file) to hurry its approach to the region
Houthi supporters hold placards with pictures of Ismail Haniyeh (L) and Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr (R) during a protest following their deaths, in Sana’a, on August 2
Smoke billows over Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip amid the Israeli offensive, on August 11
A poster of new Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar hangs on a wall at the Palestine Square in Tehran
A child sits beside the corpses of people killed in an Israeli strike in Deir el-Balah, Aug 10
Nasser Kanaani, spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, lamented that the joint statement from Britain, France and Germany ‘impudently requires Iran not to respond to a violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity’.
He instead challenged the Europeans to ‘once and for all stand up against the war in Gaza and the warmongering of Israel’.
The original statement, dated August 12, called on Iran and its allies to ‘refrain from attacks that would further escalate regional tensions and jeopardise the opportunity to agree a ceasefire and the release of hostages’ still held in Gaza.
The letter, signed by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said Iran would ‘bear responsibility for actions that jeopardise this opportunity for peace and stability’.
President Pezeshkian told German chancellor Olaf Scholz his country ‘will never give in to pressure, to sanctions and to bullying, and considers it has the right to respond to aggressors in accordance with international norms’.
It followed the latest warning from new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, insisting Iran has ‘the right to respond’ to any aggression on its soil, following the death of Haniyeh in Tehran.
A senior security official in Tehran said they would only launch a direct attack if talks fail or if they drag on.
Hezbollah has also vowed a major response against Israel for the assassination of Shukr in Beirut.
Israel has reportedly conveyed messages to allies that it will respond with an attack on Iranian territory if attacked, even if there are no casualties, pushing its allies to seek carve out diplomatic channels with Iran themselves.
Sir Keir and Pezeshkian spoke on the phone last night in a bid to cool tensions, the Prime Minister reiterating his ‘concern’ about the situation and calling on all parties to ‘de-escalate’.
He added that there was a ‘serious risk of miscalculation and now was the time for calm and careful consideration’, according to a readout of the conversation from No10.
The focus should be on diplomatic negotiations, Starmer said.
Iran’s president said war anywhere in the world was in no one’s interest but that states had the right to ‘punitive responses against an aggressor’, the official news agency IRNA reported.
‘The support of some Western countries for the Zionist regime (Israel) is irresponsible and contrary to international standards since it endangers regional security by encouraging the Zionist regime to continue its crimes,’ Pezeshkian told Starmer.
‘While emphasizing diplomatic solutions to issues, Iran will never give in to pressure, to sanctions and to bullying, and considers it has the right to respond to aggressors in accordance with international norms,’ Pezeshkian said in a separate call to Scholz.
Edmund Fitton-Brown, Senior Advisor to the Counter Extremism Project and former Ambassador of the UK to Yemen, told MailOnline this evening ‘it could all very easily spiral out of control’.
‘In essence, I think Iran and Israel would both prefer to avoid escalation out of control,’ he said.
‘But Iran (and Hezbollah) both want to be seen to respond to the Israeli assassinations.
‘Calibrating such responses in such a way as to save face and yet avoid escalation gets more difficult with each successive round of skirmishing.
‘The US is also part of this picture, seeking both to restrain Israel and to deter Iran,’ he said.
In its bid to deter Iran, the United States has sought to increase its military presence in the region.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said yesterday that President Joe Biden is in talks with European allies about reinforcing Israel with supplies, fearing retaliation from Iran as soon as this week.
What’s in the $20bn in new weapons sales?
In a notification to Congress, the State Department said it had approved a sale of 50 F-15 fighter-jets to Israel for $18.82 billion.
Israel will also buy nearly 33,000 tank cartridges, up to 50,000 explosive mortar cartridges and new military cargo vehicles.
The F-15 aircraft, which will begin to be delivered in 2029, will upgrade Israel’s current fleet and include radars and secure communications equipment.
‘The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,’ the State Department said in its notice on the F-15s, which are made by Boeing.
On the tank cartridges, the United States said the sale ‘will improve Israel’s capability to meet current and future enemy threats, strengthen its homeland defense and serve as a deterrent to regional threats.’
Congress can still block weapons sales, but such a process is difficult.
Via AFP
The US Defence Department said that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had ordered a guided missile submarine to travel to the Middle East and told the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to hurry its approach to the region.
And more than $20bn in new weapons sales to Israel were approved on Tuesday despite backlash from rights activists to withhold shipments over the humanitarian toll on Gaza.
Meanwhile, amid rising tensions in the region, top US diplomat Antony Blinken suddenly pulled out of his planned trip to the Middle East.
The secretary of state was set to visit Israel, Egypt and Qatar in a last-ditch attempt to reach a deal. According to US news website Axios, Mr Blinken postponed his travel plans due to ‘uncertainty about the situation’.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US’ ambassador to the UN, stressed today that the overall American goal in the Middle East is still to ‘turn the temperature down’.
‘That starts with finalizing a deal for an immediate ceasefire with hostage release in Gaza. We need to get this over the finish line,’ she told a U.N. Security Council meeting on the war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas in Gaza.
The threat of regional escalation also appears to have interrupted ceasefire talks, with Hamas on Sunday casting doubt over plan to join a diplomatic meeting on Thursday to hash out peace terms.
But onlookers believe neither Iran nor Israel has the appetite for wider escalation of the conflict, and will look to de-escalate after a show of force to ‘save face’.
‘All sides don’t want all out war,’ Dr Andreas Krieg, associate professor of Security Studies at King’s College London, told MailOnline upon news of Haniyeh’s death.
‘All sides want to maintain their reputation. Nobody wants to lose face. These people are replaceable.
‘All sides will find a way in this tit-for-tat escalation to respond in measure beyond a certain ceiling… all sides have been pushing the threshold but on all accounts they have always tried not to breach it.’
On April 13, Iran – with help from Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen – launched more than 200 drones and missiles at Israel in a move military insiders said was also designed to ‘save face’ after Israel killed two Iranian generals in a bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said at the time the Iron Dome defence system had intercepted virtually all of the weapons before they entered Israeli territory, reporting one injury.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said ‘very little damage was caused’, despite being the largest attempted drone strike in history.
Israel responded with limited strikes on Iran on April 18, before Iran said it would not escalate the back-and-forth any further, brushing off the weapons used as being ‘more like toys’.
Hezbollah fighters train on motorbikes in the Jezzine District of Lebanon in May 2023
Israeli soldiers patrol an area near the northern kibbutz of Kfar Blum close to the border with Lebanon in January
Israel’s Iron Dome intercepts rockets fired from southern Lebanon on August 4
A Palestinian carries a man injured in Israeli bombardment to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on August 13
People walk past posters of Israelis held hostage by Palestinian militants in Gaza since October 7, on a street in Tel Aviv today
Protests mount in Tel Aviv for Israel to seek a ceasefire and the return of hostages
Dr Krieg suggested that the death of Haniyeh could ultimately assist Israel in building a ‘victory narrative’ to enter peace talks with a claim to having achieved its war objectives of vanquishing Hamas and returning the hostages taken on October 7.
‘What this offers is a head on a silver platter,’ he said.
‘Netanyahu can say this is the end of the organisation. And that’s pretty much as close as Israel will ever get to defeating Hamas.
‘But that can only work if Israel says now ‘we’re willing to enter ceasefire talks.”
The conflict erupted on October 7 when Hamas and affiliated factions launched a brutal incursion into southern Israel, killing some 1,170 people and taking some 250 hostage.
Israel has responded with a devastating campaign across the Gaza Strip, displacing the majority of the population and killing nearly 40,000 people, according to the local Health Ministry.
Mediators have spent months trying to get the sides to agree to a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the remaining hostages in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, and Israel would withdraw from Gaza.