Ardestani was quoted as saying that Iran “is definitely prepared for the consequences of such an attack and there will be bloodshed” to avenge Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. “Iran’s response to this crime of the Zionist regime will be decisive and there is no doubt about it.”
Ardestani (a personal friend of Iran’s religious leader and head of the Revolutionary Guard, Lt. Gen. Salami) also said that delaying the response to Israel is to Iran’s advantage.
On the Israel-Hamas negotiations, referring to claims by Iran’s UN mission that Tehran would respect any ceasefire in Gaza, Ardestani said that would indeed be the only situation in which Iran would not retaliate. However, he added that the state of negotiations between the two sides showed “that it is unlikely that the two will reach such an agreement in the future, and for this reason the Islamic Republic will not let the bloodshed of martyr Haniyeh be forgotten.”
Other figures in the Iranian regime have advocated different responses to Israel’s assassination of the Hamas leader in Tehran on July 31. The different messages from across the regime are very likely representative of the differences of opinion between different camps of the regime. Senior Iranian military and security officials, as well as media linked to the Iranian armed forces and the IRGC (Revolutionary Guard), have indicated that Iran and its “Axis of Resistance” are seeking a coordinated, large-scale, attack on Israel. Other regime figures, including moderate President Mashoud Peskesian, have advocated attacking secret Israeli bases in Iraqi Kurdistan or Azerbaijan to avoid a direct conflict with Israel.
The signatory’s information from Arab and Iranian sources indicates that Iran will modify the April 2024 attack model in several ways, including increasing the volume of missiles it fires against Israel or changing the number of sites in Israel it targets, to increase the possibility of causing serious damage.
A deadly blow to a school in Gaza
Yesterday’s attack on the Gaza City school, which had served as a refuge for thousands of displaced people, also comes amid a renewed push by the US, Qatar and Egypt to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a cease-fire deal. fire. But experts said continued Israeli attacks across Gaza risked derailing those efforts, with some accusing Netanyahu of seeking to sabotage any potential deal to end the war.
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