NEW YORK, August 21. /TASS/. Iran may launch a coordinated air and ground attack on Israel in response to the assassination of the head of Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran, the country’s permanent mission to the UN said.
"The timing, conditions, and manner of Iran's response will be meticulously orchestrated to ensure that it occurs at a moment of maximum surprise; perhaps when their (Israel’s - TASS) eyes are fixed on the skies and their radar screens, they will be taken by surprise from the ground - or perhaps even by a combination of both," the mission told The Wall Street Journal.
At the same time, the Iranian mission pointed out that Tehran does not intend to disrupt negotiations on the settlement of the conflict in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army is conducting a military operation against Hamas. The Iranian diplomats said that the response "must be carefully calibrated to avoid any possible adverse impact that could potentially influence a prospective ceasefire."
On August 15-16, Doha hosted a new round of consultations aimed at reaching an agreement on the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip and the implementation of a ceasefire there. A joint statement by Egypt, Qatar and the US on the consultations said that the talks were held in a positive atmosphere. The parties agreed to hold the next meeting in Cairo before the end of this week.
The Palestinian Hamas movement announced on July 31 that the head of its political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an Israeli strike on his residence in Tehran, where he was attending the inauguration ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, Iran's elite military units) said that Haniyeh was killed by a short-range projectile with a warhead weighing about seven kilograms, adding that his assassination was organized by Israel with US support. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned that Israel will be severely punished for the killing of the Palestinian politician.