DUBAI, September 23. /TASS/. Iran does not want to destabilize the situation in the Middle East, but the assassination in Tehran of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh will not go unanswered, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told reporters in New York.

"The assassination of Haniyeh runs counter to all norms of international law and will definitely not go unanswered. The Islamic Republic of Iran responded to the strike on the Iranian consulate [in Damascus] while the United States and Western countries were supporting the Zionist regime (Israel - TASS). Iran has proven that it can respond to the crimes of this regime, but we do not want to be a destabilizing factor and undermine security in the region," he said, the ISNA news agency reported.

Pezeshkian said Israel wants to expand the conflict in the Gaza Strip by dragging Iran into it.

"Despite all efforts to prevent our response and pledges to stop bombing Gaza, to declare a ceasefire, the intensity of attacks and crimes [in the enclave] is increasing by the day," the president said.

On July 31, Hamas announced that Haniyeh was killed in an Israeli strike on his residence in Tehran, where he was attending Pezeshkian’s inauguration ceremony. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Haniyeh was killed in an explosion of a short-range shell, and that his assassination was orchestrated by Israel with the help of the US. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that Israel will be severely punished for the killing of the Palestinian politician.