Iran calls for Muslims' solidarity against Israeli 'crimes' in Gaza
TEHRAN - Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday called on Muslim states to take joint actions to force Israel to stop its "crimes and genocide" in Gaza.
He made the appeal during talks with visiting Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Tehran, according to a statement by his office.
"Muslim states and all those countries that are committed to international law and frameworks stand together and, through taking joint actions, manage to force the supporters of Israel into reining it in and stopping its crimes and genocide in Gaza," said Pezeshkian.
Applauding Qatar's efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, he said that while all legal international regulations were constantly being violated in Gaza, the countries "claiming to be advocating human rights" chose to remain silent in the face of those "crimes" and even supported the ones perpetrating the violence.
Tensions in the region have been heightened recently as Iran and its allies vowed to take revenge for the killings of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah's military commander Fouad Shokor last month.
Haniyeh, who was in Iran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Pezeshkian, was killed on July 31 along with his bodyguard when their residence in Tehran was attacked, one day after the death of Shokor in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut.
Hezbollah unleashed hundreds of missiles and drones against Israel early Sunday morning in vengeance for the killing of Shokor while Israel claimed conducting a series of "preemptive airstrikes" targeting Hezbollah's rocket launchers in southern Lebanon.
Iran has not made its retaliation yet, but a response to the assassination of Haniyeh will be "definitive, measured and well calculated", Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi said on X on Sunday night.
"We do not fear escalation, yet do not seek it," he added.
Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Mohammad Baqeri also vowed on Monday that the revenge is "definite", semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
Baqeri said Iran would decide about its revenge for Haniyeh's assassination itself, and the resistance axis, as was seen on Sunday, would act separately and independently.
He described the "cowardly" assassination of the Hamas chief in Tehran as an "unforgettable" incident, saying Iran would not fall into the trap of the enemies' media "provocations".
During talks with Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Brown on Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, "Iran's aggression has reached an all-time high."
To counter this, Israel and the United States "must work together to achieve and project groundbreaking capabilities in all arenas", a readout of his office quoted Gallant as saying.
