Haniyeh assassination: ‘Everything depends on how Iran might react’
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Now let's bring in France 24's Angela Diffley. Angela, talk us through some of the impact
00:04of Haniyeh's death so far.
00:06Yes, not surprisingly Hamas in Gaza have reacted strongly, as you said there, and vowed retaliation,
00:15said Israel will regret this. It should be said that these sort of extraterritorial targeted
00:22assassinations are not. This isn't the first time it's happened. Israel is never explicit
00:26about it, but there are a number of other occasions where it's thought to have gone
00:31after people after the event. And of course other countries do it too, notably Osama bin
00:38Laden again was a targeted extraterritorial assassination on the part of the US. So Hamas
00:46will retaliate. We will see what that looks like. Interesting to note that on the West
00:52Bank, Mahmoud Abbas, of course, the West Bank is run by Fatah. Gaza is run by Hamas.
00:59They had more or less a civil war back in 2006 and have never managed to properly unite
01:06since. Mahmoud Abbas has no choice really except to say that this is awful to condemn
01:12Israel because, and he has called for Palestinians to unite. And that is because increasingly
01:18on the West Bank, young people are very supportive of Hamas and more and more impatient with
01:24Mahmoud Abbas's own Fatah. Apart from Gaza and the West Bank within Israel, there is
01:34a mix of reactions. The families of the hostages are somewhat fearful. Ismail Haniyeh, although
01:41the political leader of Hamas, is not thought to be the most belligerent. And he was very
01:46involved in the talks over a ceasefire and a hostage for prisoners exchange. There is
01:52worry about the return of the hostages. Now, on the other hand, there is a school of thought
01:58that Benjamin Netanyahu can label this a clear win if Haniyeh has been assassinated by Israel.
02:06And that might be a pretext for winding down this war somewhat. Right. But there's another
02:12angle to this story, and that is, of course, Iran's reaction to all of this. Haniyeh again
02:17killed on Iranian soil. Yeah. There's been reaction around the Arab and the Muslim world
02:23mostly condemning outright this assassination, Egypt notably saying, don't let things spiral
02:31out of control. Everything depends on how Iran might react. I know you're going to discuss
02:36Lebanon, which is another key player in all of this as well. They have vowed, they said,
02:43Israel will regret this cowardly act. The Revolutionary Guards have vowed a painful
02:49attack in retaliation. Although Iran has a new president who took office only yesterday,
02:58the real power in Iran lies with the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. He has not changed.
03:04Iran has a lot of problems already. There is a lot of internal dissent. The economy
03:08is in great difficulty. It's not clear what will happen, but it is also probable, possible
03:17that Iran will not want to go into open confrontation with Israel and therefore the United States.
03:23It has enough problems. And in the past, when very senior nuclear scientists have been killed,
03:29it is thought, by Israel on Iranian soil, the retaliation has not been all out. And
03:36it's not clear that they would be willing to risk so much for the Palestinian cause.