The countries in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) have condemned the assassination of Hamas’ political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and called for increased diplomatic efforts to prevent a large-scale war in the Middle East. The urgent meeting of the UNSC took place on Wednesday as Iran and Hamas— the Palestinian group governing the war-torn Gaza Strip—accused Israel of being responsible for Haniyeh’s death and vowed to seek revenge. Israel has not admitted responsibility for the attack in Tehran.
Haniyeh’s assassination occurred less than 24 hours after Israel killed the top military leader of Hezbollah, Fuad Shukr, in an airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon. Israel claimed that the attack was a retaliation for a rocket incident that killed 12 children and young people from the Arab Druze community in the Golan Heights, which Israel occupies.
During the UNSC meeting, Palestine stated that the international community must stop Israel from dragging the Middle East into the “abyss,” while China, Russia, and Algeria condemned Haniyeh’s killing. In contrast, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France pointed out that Iran supports destabilizing actors in the region, and Japan expressed concern about the prospects for a large-scale war in the Middle East.
Feda Abdelhady Nasser, the Palestinian representative to the UN, said, “Israel has been an oppressor, tormentor, and murderer of Palestinians for decades, and it is the long-standing destabilizer of our region. This must stop.” She demanded accountability for Haniyeh’s killing as well as for the “killing and wounding of over 130,000 Palestinian children, women, and men in the last 300 days of terror and hell in Gaza.”
Iranian UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani stated that Tehran has always exercised maximum restraint but reserved the right to respond decisively to Haniyeh’s assassination. He urged the UNSC to condemn Israel and impose sanctions against it.
However, the United States dismissed any knowledge of the attack, stating that a broader war was neither imminent nor inevitable. Robert Wood, the American Deputy Ambassador to the UN, also urged influential members to increase pressure on Iran to halt the escalating conflict against Israel.
At the same time, Israel called on the UNSC to condemn Iran for what it described as support for regional “terrorism” and to intensify sanctions against Tehran. Jonathan Miller, Israel’s Deputy Representative to the UN, also criticized the lack of condemnation of Hezbollah for the killings in the town of Majdal Shams, located in the occupied Golan Heights.
Countries like Syria and Lebanon rejected Israel’s claims of self-defense and warned that a conflict in the Middle East would have global consequences. The Chinese Ambassador to the UN, Fu Cong, stated that the absence of a ceasefire in Gaza was responsible for the rising tensions and called on influential countries to stop the war.
France and the United Kingdom also urged restraint, with London reiterating its call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. “The path to peace must be achieved through diplomatic negotiations. Long-term peace will not be secured by bombs and bullets,” stated the British UN Ambassador.