Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday that a full-scale war in the Middle East is the only way to bring about a fragile peace in the region, Sputnik news agency reported.
“The knot in the Middle East is gradually tightening, and I regret the loss of innocent lives,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram, accusing them of being American hostages.
At the same time, everyone sees that it is clear that a full-scale war is the solution. The only way to a fragile peace in the region.”
Photo: Sputnik
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas announced on Wednesday the martyrdom of its political leader Ismail Haniyeh due to an airstrike on his residence in Tehran – where Haniyeh had gone to attend the inauguration ceremony of the new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
According to Sputnik, Hamas blamed Israel and the United States for the killing of its leader Haniyeh, and said it was impossible not to respond to this attack.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he had nothing to comment on the killing of the political leader of Hamas and Israel’s involvement in the matter.
Israeli military officials said they did not respond to media reports about the assassination of Haniyeh, a leader in the Hamas movement.
The Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post reported that the occupation government had instructed ministers not to speak publicly about Haniyeh’s death.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov described the death ofHamas leader Haniyeh described the assassination as an absolutely unacceptable political assassination, threatening to escalate tensions in the region.
“There is no doubt that the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh will have an extremely negative impact on the indirect contacts between Hamas and Israel, which provided a framework for negotiations to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on mutually acceptable terms,” said Andrei Nastasin, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Information and Press Department.
“Russia reiterates its firm call on all parties involved to exercise restraint and avoid any steps that could significantly aggravate the security situation in the region, leading to large-scale military operations,” he added.
The New York Times quoted three Iranian officials, “including two officials from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” on Wednesday. Those who were informed of the order said: “Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered a direct attack on Israel in response,” to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the capital, Tehran.
According to the three officials, Khamenei issued the order during an emergency meeting of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council on Wednesday morning local time, immediately after Tehran announced Haniyeh’s assassination.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards announced that Hamas leader Haniyeh was killed by “airborne bullets” fired from “the territory of another country.”
