- Haniyeh’s death escalates regional tensions
- UNSC urges diplomacy to prevent war
- Iran, Hamas vow retaliation for killings
Countries on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) have denounced the death of Hamas’ political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran and urged increased diplomatic efforts to prevent a full-fledged war in the Middle East.
The UN Security Council’s emergency meeting on Wednesday came as Iran and Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs the war-torn Gaza Strip, accused Israel of Haniyeh’s killing and promised to exact retribution. Israel has not accepted responsibility for the strike in Tehran.
Haniyeh was assassinated less than 24 hours after Israel killed Hezbollah’s most senior military leader, Fuad Shukr, in an air attack on Lebanon’s capital, Beirut. Israel said the incident was reprisal for a missile attack that killed 12 children and young adults from the Arab Druze community in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
At the UN Security Council meeting, Palestine urged the international community to stop Israel from plunging the Middle East into an “abyss,” while China, Russia, and Algeria condemned Haniyeh’s assassination. The United States, United Kingdom, and France cited Iranian backing for destabilizing groups in the region, while Japan expressed concern about a full-fledged Middle Eastern conflict.
“Israel has been the oppressor, tormentor, and murderer of Palestinians for decades, and it is the long-standing destabilizer of our region,” said Feda Abdelhady Nasser, the State of Palestine’s deputy permanent observer to the United Nations. “It must be stopped,” she said, demanding responsibility for Haniyeh’s death as well as the “murder and injury of over 130,000 Palestinian children, women, and men across these past 300 days of horror and hell in Gaza”.
The international community has a choice to make,” she told reporters. “May it be for peace and security. Don’t let Israel pull us all into the abyss.
Iran’s UN Ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, said Tehran has continuously exhibited maximum patience while reserving the right to respond firmly to Haniyeh’s death. He urged the United Nations Security Council to criticize Israel and punish it with sanctions.
Iravani stated that the Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the inherent right to self-defense by international law and will respond strongly to this terrorist and criminal conduct as required and appropriate. This act of violence is yet another example of Israel’s decades-long practice of terrorism and sabotage against Palestinians and other supporters of the Palestinian cause throughout the region and beyond, he said.
Iravani went on to blame Haniyeh’s death on both the United States and “war-mongering leaders” in Israel.
“The United States’ responsibility as a strategic ally and primary supporter of the Israeli regime in the region cannot be forgotten in this heinous act. This attack could not have transpired without the authorization and intelligence support of the United States,” Iravani stated.
Negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza
However, the United States denied any knowledge of the attack and stated that a larger war was neither imminent nor unavoidable. Robert Wood, the US Deputy Ambassador to the UN, also urged members with power over Iran to “increase pressure on it to stop escalating its proxy conflict against Israel and other actors.
Meanwhile, Israel urged the United Nations Security Council to censure Iran for its support of regional “terrorism” and to impose additional sanctions on Tehran. Jonathan Miller, Israel’s deputy UN representative, also criticized the lack of condemnation of Hezbollah for the killings in Majdal Shams, in the occupied Golan Heights. The Lebanese group has denied any role in the attack.
We will protect ourselves and reply with great force to those who hurt us, Miller declared, urging the world to support Israel.
Syria, from which Israel took the Golan Heights in 1967, also spoke at the meeting, denouncing Israeli assertions that the missile attack on Majdal Shams targeted Israel’s population as “lies.” Syria’s envoy, Koussay al-Dahhak, stated that the territory is Syrian and accused Israel of “weaponizing” the attack on the Druze minority “to continue its aggression against the states of the region.
Lebanon, too, disputed Israel’s claim that its activities in the region were acts of self-defense.
Hadi Hachem, Lebanon’s Charges d’affaires for the UN, described Israel’s assertion that it aims to safeguard the population it occupies as hypocritical. Israel’s real purpose is to prolong and exacerbate confrontations. It is ironic that the murderer of tens of thousands of children in Gaza weeps for the children of the occupied Syrian Golan.
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Hachem also warned the UNSC that a confrontation in the Middle East would have global consequences.
He predicted that what begins in the Middle East will spread worldwide.
Fu Cong, China’s ambassador to the UN, stated that the inability to reach a truce in Gaza was to blame for rising tensions.
He urged “countries with major influence” to extinguish the fires of conflict in the Palestinian territory.
Cong went on to call Haniyeh’s assassination “a blatant attempt to sabotage peace efforts.” He asked Israel to “halt all military operations in Gaza and immediately stop collective punishment of the people of Gaza.”
Russia also termed Haniyeh’s assassination as “a serious blow” to peace talks. At the same time, Shino Mitsuko, Japan’s deputy UN representative, stated, “We fear the region is on the verge of all-out war” and urged intensified international efforts to prevent such a catastrophe.
France and the United Kingdom also urged moderation, with London’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward emphasizing the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. She stated that Israel and Hamas must recommit to a peace process that would result in a two-state solution with a secure Israel and an independent Palestinian state.
Diplomatic conversations are necessary to achieve peace. Bombs and guns will not bring lasting peace.
