Iran’s foreign minister said on Sunday his country’s response to the assassination of Hamas terror chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31 would be “calculated.”
“Iran[‘s] reaction to Israeli terrorist attack in Tehran is definitive, and will be measured & well calculated,” tweeted Abbas Araghchi. “We do not fear escalation, yet do not seek it—unlike Israel.”
A statement released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Monday added that Araghchi viewed Haniyeh’s killing as “an unforgivable violation of Iran’s security and sovereignty.”
Israel has not claimed responsibility for Haniyeh’s death.
Last week, Iranian officials signaled that a direct attack on Israel may not be imminent, with the Islamic Republic’s mission to the United Nations insisting that any response “must be carefully calibrated” to avoid derailing Gaza ceasefire talks.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has also suggested that an attack might not be coming in the near future. “Time is at our disposal,” Brig. Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini, the IRGC spokesman, said last Tuesday.
In April, Iran launched some 300 missiles and drones in its first-ever direct attack against the Jewish state.
Early on Sunday morning, approximately 100 Israeli Air Force fighter jets destroyed thousands of rocket launchers belonging to Iranian terror proxy Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon, after detecting an imminent attack.
Hezbollah subsequently fired more than 200 projectiles into Israel.
“What happened today is not the end of the story,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the coordinated preemptive strikes.
“[Hezbollah terrorist chief Hassan] Nasrallah in Beirut and [Iranian Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei in Tehran need to know that this is an additional step in changing the situation in the north and returning our residents securely to their homes,” he added.
