Iran rejects 'excessive' calls from west to resist retaliation against Israel

Iran has rejected western calls not to retaliate against Israel for the killing in Tehran of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, late last month.

- Jason Burke

Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanaani, said in a statement: "Such demands lack political logic, are entirely contrary to the principles and rules of international law, and represent an excessive request."

A report yesterday from the official IRNA news agency said that Iran's newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, told Keir Starmer in a phone call on Monday that the west's silence about "unprecedented inhumane crime" in Gaza and Israeli attacks elsewhere in the Middle East was "irresponsible" and was encouraging Israel to put regional and global security at risk.

Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel for Haniyeh's killing on 31 July during a visit to the Iranian capital for the swearing-in of Pezeshkian. Just hours earlier, an Israeli strike in Beirut had killed a senior commander of Hezbollah, the powerful Iranbacked militant group in Lebanon.

Israel has not officially commented on its alleged role in Haniyeh's death.

Western diplomats have scrambled to prevent a major conflagration in the Middle East, where tensions are already high owing to the IsraelHamas war in Gaza.