Tehran [Iran]: Iranian Army has refuted reports that officers of Iranian special services were recruited to organise the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, state media cited a lawmaker in the country.
Quoting a deputy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, Ebrahim Rezaei, the spokesman for the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee on Sunday, said that the assassination of Haniyeh was “not the result of infiltration”, and that appropriate measures are underway, the IRNA news agency reported.
Rezaei spoke with reporters following a meeting with officials from Iran’s intelligence ministry and the IRGC. He said that the meeting was the second such meeting held to investigate the July 31 killing of Haniyeh.
A New York Times report stated that an explosive device covertly smuggled into a Tehran guesthouse, protected by IRGC, where Haniyeh was known to stay, was what killed him, said the US newspaper, which based its investigation on accounts by seven West Asian officials, including two Iranians, and an American official.
Haniyeh was in Iran’s capital for the inauguration ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian when the bomb was detonated remotely, the five officials said, as per NYT.
However, the Al Quds deputy commander stressed that the killing of Haniyeh was not a result of the activities of Iranian agents, IRNA cited the country’s lawmaker, Ebrahim Rezaei, as telling reporters yesterday.
Iran blames Israel for the attack on Hamas leader. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday, in a statement, that Haniyeh was killed by Israel using a short-range projectile with a warhead and plans to take revenge “at the appropriate time.
The statement by IRGS also accuses the “criminal government” of the United States of supporting the attack.
Israel, which is at war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has neither acknowledged nor denied killing Haniyeh.