Whatever may be the military objective of the United States-led Israel, the assassina ion of I mail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31. The tragic event instead of widening the gap within the Muslim world, especially between Sunnis and Shias, consolidated the relationship between the two sects of Islam. At least on the issue of Palestine, they were never so close as today.
Besides, the incident further isolated Israel, which enjoys the full-hearted support of just half a dozen countries of the West. Almost the entire Latin America, Africa, and Asia are against Western adventurism in the Levant. Even on the issue of Ukraine, more European countries are united against Russia.
Whatever differences they may have on several tragic developments which took place about 1400 years back the two sects of Islam are united in opposing the Zionists both Christians and Jews. Barring a handful of Sunni Arab dictators and monarchs, very few buy the Western intelligence agencies propaganda that Iran is behind the killing of Hamas leader. The overwhelming Sunni public opinion openly rejects any such canard and blame the Western media for playing a dirty game. Through social media in a small number of ultra-Salafi hotheads a totally absurd and outlandish para lel is being drawn between Imam Hussain’s martyrdom in Karbala with Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
The truth is that neither Shias were involved in the barbarity meted out to Imam Hu ain and his family members then nor were the present regime in Iran responsible for the killing of Haniyeh. In fact, it was Yazid and his generals, who can be categorized as Sunnis, who were responsible for the ghastly act in Karbala. This fact is corroborated by none else but all th Sunni sources. Imam Husain is highly venerated both among Sunnis and Shias. So, there is absolutely no scope of creating divisi n on this count, though some Salafis–not all, do not accept this truth.
Suicidal move
Thus, politically the killing of Haniyeh may prove suicidal for the West as not only the Musli countries have closed ranks, but even Russia and China are keenly watching the m vement of the navy by the United States in the Mediterranean Sea and Gulf of Oman. As geography goes against Israel, which is surrounded by hostile neighbours from all sides, the direct dragging of Iran into the conflict is in both long and short terms, not good for the Jews throughout the world. That is why, many sensible Jews, be it in the United States, Europe and even Israel want an early end to the Gaza macabre and acceptance of a two-state solution.
The very presence of Haniyeh in Iran’s capital city to attend the inauguration ceremony of Pr sident Masoud Pezeshkian a day earlier confirms how strong the bond is between Hamas and Iran.
Two days before this incident, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on July 29 threatened to militarily intervene in Israel and said “We need to be very strong so that Israel cannot do these ridiculous things to Palestine.” After the killing in Tehran, Ankara further hardened its stand against Israel.
Turkey, as a Sunni power, is now under compulsion to do something more in support of Palestine, as one cannot expect Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, UAE, etc. to stand up against Israel and its Western masters.
The United States cannot afford to antagonize Turkey, a very powerful NATO ally, which played the role of a broker between Washington and Moscow in exchanging each other’s prisoners hours after the killing of Haniyeh.
Erdogan wants to emerge as the leader of the Sunni world, the role played by Saudi Arabia during the 1973 Arab-Israel War, and the subsequent use of oil as a weapon.
False propaganda
As the entire machinery of the US, West Europe, and Israel have over the last quarter century so strongly propagated that Iran and Hamas are the two sides of the same coin, that now nobody in the Muslim world is ready to believe that the former would get killed the top most commander of the Palestinian freedom movement.
Though the attack on Ismail Haniyeh was carried out in Tehran to drive a wedge between Iran and the Sunni world, the fact is that the whole exercise proved counter-productive. Post-July 3, many close US allies in the region were compelled to condemn the killing. These puppet kingdoms are facing intense pressure from beneath as public opinion is strongly in favour of Palestine and against Israel. All the ambitious US plans are in jeopardy.
CIA stamp
Haniyeh’s killing has the stamp of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which uses the mask of Mossad to carry out any such operation in the Muslim world. Mossad alone has neither the resources nor the capability to undertake such killing. The October 7 attack by Hamas on the Headquarters of Southern Command of Israeli Defence Forces and other places exposed the weaknesses of Mossad and Shin Bet (the external and internal spy agencies of Israel) as well as its Military Intelligence.
Last year it became clear how the Five Eyes, intelligence agencies of the US, Canada, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand jointly cooperate and share inputs. That was true even while dealing with friendly India.
In the case of Iran and its allies Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthi the entire Western agencies work together though they use the name of Mossad.
The killing took place just after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to his country following his trip to the United States. True, 73 Democratic Party members of the House of Representatives (Lower House) and 23 Senators of the same party abstained from Netanyahu’s joint address to the US Congress on July 24 yet the fact is that he got bi-partisan support in Washington, that is both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump fully backed him. The killing of Haniyeh and that too in Iran was not an isolated incident but has been undertaken after a long planning and cooperation between Israel and the US as well as other Western allies.
Turkey, Iran, friends of Israel?
Turkey and Iran were until a few decades back close Western allies and bosom friends of Israel. Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution made a complete U-turn and Turkey a couple of decades later distanced itself from Tel Aviv.
After the advent of Erdogan over two decades back Turkey completely allied itself with Palestinians though unlike Iran it still has a diplomatic relationship with the Zionist state.
The problem is that they have emerged as two powerful but remote enemies of Israel which has in the last 76 years neutralized all the neighbouring Arab states.
Till now, Iran and the United States have been fighting through their proxies Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthi as well as Israel. But can the US dare to directly take on Iran which also enjoys the backing of Russia and China? After all, Moscow and Beijing badly need Tehran in their common fight against Washington.
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