Iranian political and military officials continue to assert that Tehran will retaliate for Haniyeh's assassination on its terms, emphasizing that this response will be separate from the actions of Hezbollah or other Axis of Resistance allies. Major General Muhammad Hussein Bagheri reiterated that Iran's revenge is inevitable but clarified that Hezbollah's recent strikes on Israeli military targets were independent of Iran's plans. So far, despite these harsh declarations, Tehran seems content to let its allies—Palestinians, Lebanese, and Houthis—bear the brunt of the conflict.
Tehran's strategy indicates that, in its broader geopolitical calculus, the lives of non-Iranians are considered less significant, especially when it comes to advancing Iran's national security objectives and keeping conflicts away from its borders. This approach reveals an imbalance in how Iran prioritizes the lives of its regional allies, using them as pawns in a larger strategic game while safeguarding its interests.
By leveraging the lives of Palestinians, Lebanese, and Houthis in its proxy wars, Tehran appears willing to sacrifice its allies to maintain a buffer zone and prevent confrontations within its territory, highlighting a troubling disparity in the value it places on non-Iranian lives compared to those of its citizens.
Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Major General Muhammad Hussein Bagheri, said, "A revenge for the blood of martyr Haniyeh at the hands of the resistance axis and the Islamic Republic of Iran is definite," stressing that Iran nevertheless won't "fall into the enemy's trap of media provocations and games."
He clarified that Hezbollah's "massive strikes against Israeli military targets" are not linked to Iran's response: "The Islamic Republic of Iran decides for itself about the revenge, while the resistance axis will act separately and independently in this regard, as we saw yesterday (in Hezballah. 's retaliatory strike)".
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his Italian counterpart "that Tehran saw the assassination of Haniyeh as "an unforgivable violation of Iran's security and sovereignty," adding that "Iran's reaction to Israeli terrorist attack in Tehran is definitive, and will be measured & well calculated…Unlike Israel, we do not fear escalation, yet do not seek it."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan'ani praised Hezballah's "Arbaeen operation" - drone and missile assault in response to the assassination of Fuad Shuk - and said that it had shifted the strategic balance in the region and turned against it. Has said in this regard that "the Israeli terrorist army has lost its effective offensive and deterrent power and now must defend itself against strategic strikes," adding that the Hezbollah attack "extended deep into the occupied territories and that the "strategic balance has undergone fundamental changes" to the detriment of Israel; "the myth of the invincibility of the Israeli regime's army has long turned into a hollow slogan."
Majlis speaker Muhammad Bagher Ghalibaf compared the Hezballah's operation to the "defeat" of Israeli forces in the 2006 war with Hezballah.
"Today's defeat of the regime was on a par with the defeat in the 2006 operation, and they cannot hide this defeat,"
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