US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the United States “was not aware of or involved in” the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, which has escalated already heightened tensions across the Middle East.
In an interview with Channel on Wednesday, Blinken said he did not want to speculate as to what effect Haniyeh’s killing in the Iranian capital would have.
“This is something we were not aware of or involved in,” the top US diplomat said. “It’s very hard to speculate, and I’ve learned over many years never to speculate on the impact one event may have on something else. So I can’t tell you what this means.”
Haniyeh’s killing in the early hours of Wednesday in Tehran, where he was attending the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian, has been condemned by leaders across the region and raised concerns about further escalation.
Hamas, the Palestinian political faction that governs the Gaza Strip, has blamed Israel for the attack that killed its political leader, saying Haniyeh was killed in a “treacherous Zionist raid”.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also promised “harsh punishment” for Israel in retaliation for the assassination, saying Tehran must avenge Haniyeh.
Reporting from the Lebanese capital Beirut on Wednesday, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said recent responses to Haniyeh’s killing suggest there could be a “coordinated response” from Iran and its regional allies.
“In Iran, they are hoisting the red flag – the flag of revenge. So there is a lot of anger,” she said.
Israel has yet to comment on the attack but had previously promised to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders after the group’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which killed 1,139 people and triggered the country’s war on Gaza.
