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UK, US, France block UNSC statement condemning assassination of Hamas leader — diplomat

Amir Saeid said that Israel cannot be allowed to escape accountability and consequences

UNITED NATIONS, August 1. /TASS/. Russia proposed that the UN Security Council adopt a statement condemning the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, but the UK, US and France blocked the idea, said Amir Saeid Iravani, the Iranian envoy to the UN.

"Russia's proposed statement condemning Israel's heinous act was blocked by the US, UK and France," he said at an emergency UN Security Council meeting called in the wake of Haniyeh's killing.

"It is now absolutely necessary to hold the occupying [Israeli] regime accountable for the atrocities it committed," the diplomat went on to say. "This regime cannot be allowed to escape accountability and consequences for the violations it has committed."

Earlier, Hamas said its leader was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his residence in Tehran, where he stayed after attending the inauguration ceremony of Iranian President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian. Hezbollah said its military commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli airstrike on southern Beirut.