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TEHRAN: Iran was set to hold funeral processions on Thursday for Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh ahead of his burial in Doha after he was killed in a strike in Tehran blamed on Israel.
The Islamic republic’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will lead the prayers for Haniyeh, having earlier threatened a “harsh punishment” for his killing.
Haniyeh’s death was announced on Wednesday by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, who said he and his bodyguard were killed in a strike on their accommodation in the Iranian capital at 2:00 am (2230 GMT).

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The Israeli government assassinated the leader of Hamas’ political wing while he was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of the newly-elected Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian:

Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political wing, was killed in Iran, Hamas announced Wednesday, describing the death as an assassination. Hamas and Iran both blamed Israel and vowed to retaliate; the Israel Defense Forces declined to comment. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said it was Iran’s “duty” to avenge the killing, and Hamas’s armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, warned of “major repercussions” for the whole region.

Killing a top political leader of Hamas seems designed to scuttle any chance of a ceasefire in the near future, and doing this on Iranian soil seems all but guaranteed to provoke a strong reaction from the Iranian government and its proxies elsewhere in the region. Netanyahu couldn’t make it any clearer that he has no interest in ending the war in Gaza and that he welcomes a wider conflict. The Biden administration’s ongoing failure to rein in the Israeli government has allowed things to reach this point.

The region is on the edge of a knife, and the Israeli government has been trying for months to start a major conflagration. The assassination in Iran comes on the heels of an Israeli strike in Beirut this week and the attack on vital civilian infrastructure in Hodeidah in Yemen earlier this month. The Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus back in April led to a significant Iranian military response. The Iranian government is pledging to avenge the Haniyeh assassination, and there will be tremendous pressure from their own hardliners to inflict more damage than they did in the last reprisal.

The assassination will be an important test for the candidates in the election. It is safe to assume that Trump has no problem with a reckless and dangerous assassination that risks war with Iran because he ordered one himself four years ago, and his running mate has defended that terrible decision on more than one occasion. That leaves Harris. As Spencer Ackerman writes today, this is Harris’ opportunity to demonstrate that she will be different from Biden on these issues:

Harris is not a passive observer. She is the second most-senior elected official in the United States, and this is the situation she is looking to inherit. We know that Trump wants to let the Israelis “finish the job.” Is that also Harris’ position, with a sprinkling of rhetorical compassion for Palestinians acting as cover for policy continuity? Or will she demonstrate the leadership necessary to stop a coalescing, escalating regional war that the United States possesses the material leverage on Israel to end? 

Read the rest of the article at Eunomia

Daniel Larison is a contributing editor for Antiwar.com and maintains his own site at Eunomia. He is former senior editor at The American Conservative. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter.

The Israeli assassination of Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in the Iranian capital of Tehran is expected to derail negotiations for a hostage and Gaza ceasefire deal.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani, who has been mediating indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, expressed concern about the impact the assassination will have on the negotiations.

“Political assassinations and continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side? Peace needs serious partners and a global stance against the disregard for human life,” al-Thani wrote on X.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was doing everything he could to sabotage the chances of a deal before his big trip to Washington, something that’s been widely acknowledged by Israeli media and officials.

Haniyeh was seen as Hamas’s leading proponent of reaching a ceasefire deal with Hamas. While Hamas’s top leader is Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to be hiding deep inside the tunnel system under Gaza, Haniyeh was the top official for the Palestinian group outside of Gaza and played a key role in the negotiations.

Progress toward a deal is not expected to be made as the region is bracing for Iran’s retaliation for the assassination on its territory and Hezbollah’s response to the Israeli killing of one of its top military commanders in Beirut.

US officials told Axios that they’re concerned the assassination of Haniyeh will derail negotiations and could lead to a major regional war. But the US is strongly backing Israel, as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin vowed the US would defend Israel from any retaliation.

The circumstances around Haniyeh’s death are unclear. His deputy, Khalil al-Haia, said Haniyeh was killed while sleeping at an official guest residency in Tehran. Al-Haia said Haniyeh was struck by a missile, but it’s unclear if Israeli warplanes were involved. Israel has previously carried out attacks inside Iran using small quadcopter drones that explode on impact.

Haniyeh was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who is considered a moderate and pledged to pursue diplomacy to get Western sanctions lifted. But the Israeli assassination will likely also derail any Iranian plans to attempt to engage with the US on sanctions.