By Daanyaal Matthews
The international community continues to realign following the death of political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, with his death leading to greater speculation on the region’s stability as his death effectively hinders discussions of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas whilst antagonizing the Islamic Republic of Iran as the assassination occurred on Iranian soil.
Speaking on VOC’s News Beat, Dr. Firoz Osman, Executive Member of the Media Review Network, argued that while the trend of Israel assassinating high level members of Hamas in the history of the conflict between the two is congruent with the overwhelming theory that Israel had conducted this assassination, speculation is a dangerous affair.
However, given the position of Iran in the conflict in Gaza and prior relations with Israel, the growing fear is that the Islamic state will directly involve itself in a conflict with Israel rather than operating via proxy, as had been the case in years prior through the sponsorship of the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“It is the only country that has been standing up to Israel after Saddam Hussein was killed, but all the ‘lapdogs’ around them. So it is Iran that poses to them, and of course it is Iran that supported Hamas and Hezbollah, and those are posing serious dangers to the Israelis,” commented Osman.
As details trickle in on the intricacies of the attack, what is clear is that the assassins had exploited flaws in Iran’s defence, with reports presently indicating that the perpetrators had planted a bomb in the guesthouse that Mr. Haniyeh was to be situated in, with the bomb possibly weeks prior to the event. For Osman, this was planned to take place on Iranian soil to ‘embarrass’ the Iranian state, an argument that has seemingly come true as Iranian officials have described this failure to protect Haniyeh as a failure in duty and an embarrassment.
“The attack on Iranian soil is to embarrass Iranians, and it is an embarrassment, but also it shows up the dangers the Ummah faces, that it is Israel that will do anything,” said Dr. Firoz
VOCNews
Photo: Khamanei.ir
