People walk past a poster of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R) and slain Palestinian Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital, Tehran, on 10 August 2024, amid regional tensions during the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. (Atta Kenare/AFP)
Iran on Tuesday rejected Western calls to stand down its
threat to retaliate against Israel for the killing of Hamas political leader
Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran late last month.
“The declaration by France, Germany and Britain, which
raised no objection to the international crimes of the Zionist regime, brazenly
asks Iran to take no deterrent action against a regime which has violated its
sovereignty and territorial integrity,” foreign ministry spokesperson
Nasser Kanani said in a statement.
READ | The US and its European allies tell Iran to ‘stand down’ Israel attack threats
“Such a request lacks political logic, flies in the
face of the principles and rules of international law, and constitutes public
and practical support” for Israel.
Iran and its allies have blamed Israel for the killing of
Haniyeh as he visited Tehran on 31 July for the swearing-in of President Masoud
Pezeshkian. Israel has not commented.
Western diplomats have scrambled to avert a major
conflagration in the Middle East, where tensions were already high due to the
Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
In a statement on Monday, the United States and European
allies called on Iran to “stand down”.
“We called on Iran to stand down its ongoing threats of
a military attack against Israel and discussed the serious consequences for
regional security should such an attack take place,” said the joint
statement issued by Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the United States.
Discussion about this post