Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Following Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and Hezbollah’s Fuad Shukr in Beirut tensions are reaching boiling point in the Middle East but, according to a report by Nikkei Asia, none of the Arab countries are in favor of an all-out war between Iran and Israel since it would damage the main oil outlet in the Arabian Gulf.

However, the report adds, experts believe that Iran will plan and execute a revenge attack for the killing of Hamas leader Haniyeh in Iran, but it will take time.

Senior Hamas official Haniyeh was assassinated on Wednesday, reportedly by an explosive device hidden in the Tehran guesthouse where he was staying. The guesthouse is run and protected by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Haniyeh was in Iran’s capital for the presidential inauguration and the bomb was apparently detonated remotely.

Nikkei quoted Barbara Slavin, a Distinguished Fellow at The Stimson Center and former director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East Programs, who said: “I don’t think Iran will mount a similar attack [to the one in April. Iran’s leader Ali] Khamenei will take some time to consider his options and try to use the killing of Haniyeh to boost Iran’s contention that Israel – not Iran – is a rogue state.”

Slavin said that Israel’s goals are clear and uncompromising. “It’s been clear for some time that [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu does not want a negotiated peace. He wants ‘total victory’ and the destruction of Hamas however long that takes and however negative the impact on Israeli hostages and Israel itself.”

Amr Moussa, former secretary general of the Arab League, said that the Haniyeh assassination would stall ongoing talks for an Israeli ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza.

The report says Iran’s recent diplomatic moves with Saudi Arabia and Egypt suggest that it has nothing to gain from unravelling these important relations and taking a more aggressive route.