Iran’s supreme leader prays over the coffin of Haniyeh

Iran’s supreme leader and representatives of Palestinian militias he backs have prayed over the coffins of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard, who were killed in a shocking assassination blamed on Israel that risks escalating into an all-out regional war.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prayed over Haniyeh’s coffin at Tehran University on Thursday while Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, stood next to him.

State television later showed the coffins placed in a truck and moved on the street towards Azadi Square in Tehran and people throwing flowers at them.

After the funeral services in Tehran, Haniyeh’s remains are to be transferred to Qatar for burial Friday.

Haniyeh came to Tehran to attend the inauguration of Pezeshkian.

Associated Press photos showed the Hamas leader seated alongside leaders from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group and Hezbollah, and Iranian media showed him and Pezeshkian hugging.

Haniyeh had met Khamenei earlier, and hours later, he was killed in an air strike that hit a residence Haniyeh used in Tehran.

Iranian authorities said the attack was under investigation but did not provide details.

In a statement, Khamenei said revenge was “our duty” and Israel had “prepared a harsh punishment for itself” for killing “a dear guest in our home.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “will exact a very heavy price from any aggression against us on any front”, but did not mention the killing.

“There are challenging days ahead,” he said.

Israel had pledged to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders over the group’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.

The strike came just hours after Israel targeted a top commander in Iran’s ally Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

Iran supports Hamas, as well as Hezbollah and other Palestinian militant groups fighting Israel in Gaza.

The assassination was potentially explosive amid the region’s volatile, intertwined conflicts because of its target, its timing and the decision to carry it out in Tehran.

Most dangerous was the potential to push Iran and Israel into direct confrontation if Iran retaliates.

The US and other nations scrambled to prevent a wider, deadlier conflict.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “all parties” in the Middle East must avoid escalatory actions that could plunge the region into further conflict.

Speaking in the Mongolian capital of Ulaaanbataar on Thursday, Blinken appealed for countries to “make the right choices in the days ahead.”

He said a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza was the only way to begin to break the current cycle of violence and suffering.

Blinken did not mention Israel, Iran or Hamas by name in his comments.

Bitter regional rivals, Israel and Iran risked plunging into war earlier in 2024 when Israel hit Iran’s embassy in Damascus in April.

Iran retaliated, and Israel countered in an unprecedented exchange of strikes on each other’s soil, but international efforts succeeded in containing that cycle before it spun out of control.

During Pezeshkian’s inauguration ceremony, in his speech, he spoke in support of Palestinians, saying “Iran demands a world where no Palestinian child’s dreams are buried under the rubble of their home.”

“We are seeking a world where the proud people of Palestine are freed from occupation, oppression and imprisonment and genocide,” Pezeshkian said.