Key Points
Iran has raised a symbolic red flag atop a mosque in the Shiite holy city of Qom after the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday while he was in the Iranian capital to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday..
Earlier, the flag was raised after the killing of the head of Iran's elite Quds force, Qassim Suleimani, in a US airstrike in January 2020.. Clearly, the flag is a call for avenging Haniyeh's killing, but will it be an attack on Israel like the one in April or an onslaught which will trigger an all-out war..
Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered a direct attack against Israel in response to the killing of Haniyeh, reported The New York Times, citing three Iranian officials aware of the development..
The back-to-back assassinations of Haniyeh and Shukr could lead to an "all-out" war in the region or could be part of a larger plan by Israel to escalate tensions with Hezbollah and Iran to the point where they decide to settle the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, retired Marine Col. Stephen Ganyard, a former Deputy Assistant U.S. Secretary of State, has told ABC News...
In April, Iran's attack on Israel after an Israeli strike on Iranian embassy on Damascus was also likely to escalate into an all-out war but Iran's retaliation, though unprecedented, failed to inflict much damage on Israel which claimed that most of the rockets and missiles were intercepted and the attack caused no loss of life..
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