• Iranian acting FM calls Dar, shares anguish over Haniyeh’s assassination
• IRGC labels attack as a terrorist act by Israel ‘supported by United States’
• Says Hamas leader killed by a short-range projectile with 7kg warhead
• Fazl meets Hamas leaders in Qatar, calls for liberation of Al Aqsa Mosque

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday backed Iran’s call for an extraordinary meeting of the foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Co­­operation (OIC) member countries to discuss developments following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

The support for the Iranian proposal was confirmed in a telephone conversation between Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani.

“The Iranian acting foreign minister also requested the deputy prime minister (Mr Dar) to participate in the Extraordinary Meeting of the OIC being convened at the foreign ministers’ level,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.

It said that Mr Dar, who also serves as the foreign minister, “fully supported this call and confirmed that Pakistan would actively participate in the important meeting”.

During the conversation, Mr Kani shared the Iranian nation’s and its leadership’s deep anguish over Mr Haniyeh’s assassination.

Iran has been seeking an extraordinary meeting of OIC foreign ministers since October when Israel unleashed its aggression in Gaza. The call was renewed in June this year with a plea for formulating a joint strategy against the Israeli offensive in Gaza. Tehran has once again started making efforts to convene the meeting after Mr Haniyeh’s assassination.

Mr Haniyeh was killed on Wednesday in the Iranian capital, where he had gone to attend the swearing-in of the new president, Masoud Pezeshkian.

Tensions in the Middle East have soared as Iran and its allies readied their response to the assassination, while western governments called on their citizens to leave Lebanon after the United States said it would move warships and fighter jets to the region, spurring fears of a regional war.

Tehran has now formally blamed Israel for the assassination as it revealed the details of the attack in which Mr Haniyeh was killed.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), while sharing the details of preliminary investigation, said Mr Haniyeh was assassinated by a short-range projectile and labelled the act as a terrorist attack orchestrated by “Israel’s Zionist regime”.

Islamabad has also strongly condemned Mr Haniyeh’s murder and observed a national day of mourning. His funeral in absentia was also held on the premises of Parliament House.

The National Assembly has also passed a unanimous resolution condemning the Hamas leader’s killing and noted that it was a result of “deliberate conspiracies to sabotage efforts to stop” the ongoing Gaza conflict.

Mr Dar, in his conversation with Iran’s acting foreign minister, reiterated Pakistan’s condemnation of the developments in Gaza and the “heinous act” of Mr Haniyeh’s assassination in the strongest possible terms.

‘Short-range projectile’

The IRGC said that Israel killed Mr Haniyeh using a “short-range projectile” launched from outside of his accommodation in Tehran.

“This terrorist operation was carried out by firing a short-range projectile with a warhead of about 7 kilograms — causing a strong explosion — from outside the accommodation area,” the Guards said in a statement.

It added that Israel was “supported by the United States” in the attack.

The Guards insisted that Mr Haniyeh’s assassination would be avenged and that Israel would receive “a severe punishment at the appropriate time, place and manner”.

Israel, which has declined to comment on Mr Haniyeh’s killing, had earlier struck a Hezbollah stronghold in south Beirut.

That strike killed a senior commander of the Lebanese militant group it blamed for a deadly weekend rocket strike on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

In Iran, the voices clamouring for revenge have intensified since Mr Haniyeh’s killing.

On Saturday, the ultraconservative Kayhan daily said retaliatory operations were expected to be “more diverse, more dispersed and impossible to intercept”.

“This time, areas such as Tel Aviv and Haifa and the strategic centres and especially residences of some officials involved in the recent crimes are among the targets,” the newspaper said in an opinion piece.

Fazl calls for Al Aqsa’s liberation

Meanwhile, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Saturday met the top leadership of Hamas in Qatar, Dawn.com reported.

In his meeting with Khalid Meshaal, he called for the liberation of Al Aqsa mosque and paid tribute to Mr Haniyeh.

With additional input from agencies

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2024