By Enyichukwu Enemanna
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Washington was “not aware of or involved in” the killing of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.
“I can’t tell you what this means. I can tell you that the importance of getting a ceasefire for everyone remains,” Blinken said in an interview with Channel News Asia in Singapore on Wednesday.
“This is something we were not aware of or involved in,” he said of the killing.
Haniyeh was in Iran to attend the inauguration of Iran’s new President when he was killed by an Israeli air strike, Hamas said Wednesday.
Heritage Times HT recalls that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its October 7 attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza.
Washington has been actively involved in backing Israel with military support and has now been pushing for a Gaza ceasefire.
Blinken said US-backed peace talks remains “manifestly in the interests” of the Israeli hostages and Gazans who have been “caught in this crossfire of Hamas’s making”.
In his capacity as the political chief of the Palestinian movement Hamas, Haniyeh was overseeing the negotiations for a deal to end the war in Gaza and release hostages held in the territory in exchange for Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel.
Blinken, who is visiting Singapore, said a Gaza ceasefire was also essential to prevent the conflict from spreading to the rest of the region.
“We’ve been working from day one not only to try to get to a better place in Gaza but also to prevent the conflict from spreading, whether it’s the north with Lebanon and Hezbollah, whether it’s the Red Sea with the Huthis, whether it’s Iran, Syria, Iraq, you name it,” Blinken told a forum in the city-state.
“A big key to trying to make sure that doesn’t happen, and that we can move to a better place, is getting the ceasefire.”
Hamas vowed the “cowardly” killing of their veteran leader “will not go unanswered”.
The October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli figures.
