‘Tehran backs Gaza truce efforts, but reserves right to retaliate against Israel’

Iran’s interim Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani says the Islamic Republic reserves the "inherent right" to retaliate against Israel for violation of its sovereignty, however it supports efforts aimed at putting an end to the occupying regime’s genocidal war on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Ali Bagheri Kani said the Israeli regime has been attempting “to expand the scope of the war to other regional countries.”

Bagheri Kani made the remarks during a Tuesday phone call with Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani who voiced his country’s concerns over the increasing tensions in the region, and called all parties to exercise restraint to help put an end to the war in Gaza.

He said “clear examples” of Israel’s attempts were its April attack on the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus, its “cowardly” attack on a residential area in Lebanon’s Beirut and its last month’s assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, in Tehran.  

“The recent acts of aggression are a clear violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria, Lebanon and the Islamic Republic of Iran. While continuing its efforts to stop the aggression against Gaza, the Islamic Republic of Iran stresses its inalienable and legitimate right to reciprocate,” he added.

Haniyeh, who was in Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Iran's new President Masoud Pezeshkian, alongside other Axis of Resistance leaders, was martyred in an attack late last month.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has warned the Israeli regime of a "harsh response" for Haniyeh's assassination, calling it the Islamic Republic's duty to avenge the Palestinian resistance leader's blood.

“The criminal and terrorist Zionist regime martyred our dear guest in our homeland and left us bereaved, but it also set the ground for a harsh punishment for itself,” the Leader said.

Hamas: Iran to take revenge on Israel over Haniyeh assassination ‘at substantial level’

The representative of Hamas in Tehran says Iran’s response to Israel

In the Tuesday phone conversation, Tajani stressed the necessity of advancing a new initiative by Egypt, Qatar and the US to reach ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible.

In a joint statement released earlier this month, the three countries called for the resumption of negotiations to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and the release of prisoners and captives.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed 39,897 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 92,152 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.

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