ISLAMABAD: According to a press release from the Foreign Office (FO), Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar stated on Saturday that Pakistan completely backed Iran’s request for an “extraordinary meeting” of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) following the death of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in a strike in Tehran. Leading prayers for the Palestinian leader’s funeral in Qatar on Thursday was Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, who had earlier vowed a “harsh punishment” for Haniyeh’s death.
When Haniyeh was assassinated, he was in Tehran attending Pezeshkian’s inauguration. Before the ceremony at Tehran University, thousands of mourners gathered with Palestinian flags and posters of Haniyeh, there was also a parade. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed Haniyeh’s demise, stating that he and his bodyguard perished in an attack on their lodging in the country’s capital around two in the morning on Wednesday.
It happened just hours after Israel struck the Lebanese capital of Beirut in retaliation, killing prominent Hezbollah leader Fuad Shukr and raising worries of a wider regional conflict as a result of the Israel-Hamas fighting in Gaza. Israel has refrained from commenting on the strike in Tehran. Iran “will certainly carry out the supreme leader’s order [to avenge Haniyeh],” according to Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the conservative speaker of the Iranian parliament.
“We have a responsibility to act appropriately when and where appropriate,” he declared during a speech amid cries of “Death to Israel, Death to America!” from the audience. Today, Iran’s acting foreign minister, Ali Bagehri Kani, spoke over the phone with Dar and expressed his nation’s profound sorrow for Ismail Haniyeh’s murder in Tehran. PM Shehbaz Sharif had denounced the events in Gaza and the heinous death of Ismail Haniyeh in the “strongest possible terms,” FM Dar informed his Iranian colleague, expressing Pakistan’s solidarity with Iran.
Furthermore, the killing was universally denounced by the National Assembly as violating “international law, established diplomatic norms, and acceptable behavior among the comity of nations.” Kani asked Dar to attend the “extraordinary meeting” of the OIC, which is being called at the “foreign ministers level,” to discuss this issue. Iran has sought the meeting, which the FO stated will probably happen soon. Dar affirmed that Pakistan would “actively participate” in the “important meeting” and expressed complete support for the request for an unusual meeting.
