DUBAI, August 14. /TASS/. The UN should declare Israel a terrorist regime in light of the mass civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip, Iranian Permanent Representative to international organizations in Geneva Ali Bahraini opined.

"In accordance with Article 2.1 of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, institutions of the Israeli regime should be recognized as terrorist ones. Thus, the actions that the Israeli regime carries out against the Palestinian people is blatant terrorism," he wrote in a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk and two special rapporteurs of the organization. The text of his letter is quoted by the Tasnim news agency.

"By eliminating Palestinian leaders, Israel seeks to destroy the Palestinian political identity and take away the fundamental right of the Palestinian people to an independent state," Bahraini said. He demanded that the UN condemn the assassination of Palestinian Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Another round of escalation in the Middle East followed the violent death of Hamas Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and the elimination of Hezbollah top military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut. Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah held Israel responsible and asserted that the attacks will be met with retaliation.