Iran’s retaliation to Tel Aviv for killing Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran “will be more severe, more painful to the Israeli regime than what Tel Aviv experienced after it attacked the Iranian consulate in Damascus,” Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a political analyst and professor at Tehran University, tells Spuntik.
Marandi believes that "any escalation will simply make things worse for the regime in Tel Aviv," predicting that Iran and other members of the Axis of Resistance will deliver a "major response" to recent actions by Israel.Marandi elaborates that "the Israeli regime has lost the war."
"It has lost in Gaza after ten months, it has failed to take this very small piece of land. It has failed in its war with Hezbollah after almost ten months of conflict. The Israeli regime has been unable to dislodge Hezbollah from the border, and it has paid a heavy price," he says.
Marandi also warned that if the US were to intervene, they would "lose" and face severe consequences, including being expelled from Iraq and seeing their bases in the Persian Gulf region destroyed.
At the same time Marandi argues that only the Americans and the Europeans are able to stop the full-fledged war in the region.
“They are the ones who are supporting this Holocaust. They are the ones who are enabling the regime in Tel Aviv to continue raping prisoners and murdering children. This is a war that they endorse. They are providing the funding, the ammunition, the weapons, the political cover. Without full Western support Tel Aviv would not be able to continue this war for two weeks. So we all know that the leash is in Washington, so it's up to the Americans to make a decision,” he says.
On Wednesday, Palestinian movement Hamas confirmed the death of Haniyeh as a result of an Israeli strike on his residence in the Iranian capital. According to the movement, Haniyeh was killed in an Israeli "raid" on his residence in Tehran after his participation in the inauguration ceremony of the new president of Iran.
"The death of the hero Ismail Haniyeh after his participation in the inauguration of the Iranian president will not affect the decisions of the leadership [Hamas] and its structures. Israel will pay the price for this crime and for all crimes against our people," Hamas representative in Algeria Youssef Hamdan told Sputnik on Wednesday.
Later that day, Iran's Foreign Ministry stated that Tehran has an inalienable right to respond appropriately to the murder of the Hamas politburo chief.