Assassination of Ismail Haniyeh; Security Scandal in the 'Safe Embrace of Resistance'

Less than a day after images of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas's political bureau, embracing Masoud Pezeshkian, the President of Iran, news of his assassination in the heart of Tehran emerged. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. Although Israel has not officially claimed responsibility for this assassination, all fingers are currently pointing towards the Israeli security service and the possibility of retaliation against this high-ranking Hamas official for the surprise attack on Israel on October 7 last year. Haniyeh's killing occurred at a time when Iran, particularly Tehran, was under special security conditions due to the swearing-in ceremony of Masoud Pezeshkian, and officials had put the country in a semi-holiday state due to the 'heat'. Many Tehran newspapers that had closed their front pages before the assassination published images of Haniyeh and Pezeshkian embracing each other with headlines like 'Oath to Resistance', 'Vow to Resistance', 'Swearing-in in the Color of Resistance', and 'Anti-Zionist Shout of the President'. Just a day prior, the warm and friendly images of Haniyeh meeting Pezeshkian in the open parliament were widely shared in the Persian-speaking social media by government-affiliated users with the promotional title 'The Resistance Front in the Safe Embrace of Iran'. Hours later, it became clear that the Islamic Republic had failed to provide a 'safe embrace' for this Hamas leader, who is referred to as the second-in-command of the extremist group that is listed as a terrorist organization by Europe and the US, and whom Israel has been trying to assassinate for years. Beyond the elimination of one of the most important leaders of a group that the Islamic Republic refers to as the 'Resistance Front', the security weakness that allowed the successful attack in Tehran, especially on a day when dozens of foreign guests were in Iran, is of utmost importance. The assassination of Qassem Soleimani and other high-ranking IRGC commanders, although painful for the Islamic Republic, at least did not occur within Iran, and there were always justifications such as the collaboration of some 'traitorous foreigners' with the 'enemy' regarding them. The front page of the Jam-e Jam newspaper on the day the news of Ismail Haniyeh's assassination in Tehran was published. Although Mossad had previously assassinated Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, known as Abu Muhammad al-Masri, the second-in-command of al-Qaeda, in Tehran on behalf of the US, the physical elimination of Haniyeh, who openly traveled to Iran, is not comparable to the elimination of Abu al-Masri, who lived secretly in Iran. The killing of Ismail Haniyeh was not even similar to the targeted elimination of the Islamic Republic's 'nuclear scientists and figures' such as Majid Shahriari, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, Masoud Ali Mohammadi, and Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, among others, between 2009 and 2011, as these individuals lived and worked in Iran. However, Ismail Haniyeh, as a foreign guest and an important figure of the 'Resistance' who certainly should have been under high-level protection, was successfully targeted and killed. Although this was not Haniyeh's first visit to Iran and images and videos of his presence, including at Friday prayers in Iran, had been published, his participation in Masoud Pezeshkian's swearing-in ceremony and their warm and smiling embrace, which came just days after Pezeshkian emphasized the continuation of the Islamic Republic's support for this front during his presidency, had generated significant news. This assassination occurred shortly after the assassination of Foad Shukr, a high-ranking commander of Hezbollah in Beirut, who was reported to be responsible for the deaths of 12 children and teenagers on a football field in the Golan Heights. Little information has been published about the details of Ismail Haniyeh's killing, and the public relations statements from the IRGC have only confirmed the news of his death and that of one of his bodyguards in the early hours of Wednesday, August 10, at his residence in Tehran without providing further details. Pezeshkian emphasized 'comprehensive support' for Hamas in a letter to Haniyeh. Although the IRGC reported that Haniyeh's residence was 'hit', it is still unclear how and with what means this building was struck, and due to the security scandal, it seems unlikely that more details will be published for now. Furthermore, there has not yet been a precise report of an explosion being heard in Tehran, and only unverified accounts in social media have mentioned hearing an explosion in the west and north of Tehran around 2 AM on Wednesday, which, of course, is not credible. Nevertheless, the reactions of social media users who started their Wednesday morning by reading this news are increasing throughout the day; the main focus of most of these reactions is to blame the security and intelligence forces in Iran or to humiliate them. The blame directed at the Islamic Republic's intelligence-security apparatus and the government's defense this time comes from a different angle; that if Haniyeh's assassination was carried out by Israel, how much operational control this country has in Iran and that it alone determines the timing and location of its operations in the territory of its biggest enemy. Criticism of the Islamic Republic's air defense and the exclusive functionality of this hardware and the security measures for defenseless and unarmed internal citizens are also among the criticisms voiced by critics and opponents of the Iranian government. The Islamic Republic, which has spent years promoting the importance of defending Syria and Bashar al-Assad to prevent the presence of the Islamic State group in Tehran, is now announcing the 'martyrdom' of Haniyeh in the heart of Tehran, less than a day after his meeting with the leader of the Islamic Republic and the publication of images of him alongside other 'Resistance' leaders in Iran.