THE assassination of Hamas political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh, on July 31 in a state guesthouse in Tehran has created shockwaves around the world.
No more is this exemplified than in the words of Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Thani who said on X: “Political assassinations and continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side? Peace needs serious partners and a global stance against the disregard for human life.”
Qatar, which is one of the countries deeply involved in mediation efforts for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, was at one point unjustly blamed by Israel and its patron, the US, for its alleged lackadaisical effort to pressure Hamas to agree to a ceasefire on Israeli terms.
Egypt, another member of the quartet that mediates on the ceasefire, followed with a similar statement that the assassinations in Tehran and Beirut undermine “the strenuous efforts made by Egypt and its partners to stop the war in the Gaza Strip” and “indicate the absence of Israeli political will to calm the situation”.
Cairo also called for the United Nations Security Council to “prevent the security situation in the region from spiralling out of control”.
The assassination in Beirut in the Egyptian statement refers to an Israeli air strike on a residential building in the Southern Suburb of Beirut targeting commander Fuad Shukr, a high-ranking figure in Hezbollah who reportedly heads the resistance group’s precision missile project whom US authorities describe as a “senior advisor” to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
Shukr was killed hours earlier before Haniyeh although it was hours later that the martyrdom of the former was confirmed after his body was found in the rubbles.
Haniyeh was killed by a missile that hit him directly in a state guesthouse where he was staying, senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya told a news conference in Tehran, quoting witnesses who were with Haniyeh.
Meanwhile, Al Mayadeen, an Arab independent media satellite channel, quoting an Iranian source, reported that Haniyeh was assassinated “using a cross-country missile”, but in the same breadth the Iranian source emphasised that it “was carried out by a missile launched from one country to another, not from within Iran”.
This is absurd and shows the Iranian source’s ignorance of what is meant by a cross-country missile.
A cross-country missile launch typically refers to the test or deployment of a missile that is launched from one side of a country and travels across to another part of the same country. These launches are conducted to test the missile’s range, accuracy and performance over long distances.
Here are some key points about cross-country missile launches:
To test the missile’s capabilities, including propulsion, guidance systems, accuracy and payload delivery;
Can include a variety of missile types such as ballistic missiles, cruise missiles or other long-range projectiles;
Extensive safety measures and precautions are taken to ensure the missile does not pose a threat to civilian areas. The trajectory is carefully planned to avoid populated regions;
The missile’s flight is closely monitored using radar, satellites and other tracking systems. Data is collected to analyse the missile’s performance.
Such launches can have geopolitical implications, especially if the missile can carry nuclear warheads or if the technology can potentially be used in intercontinental ballistic missiles; and
International treaties and agreements, such as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (which was in effect from 1988 to 2019), have historically regulated the testing and deployment of certain types of missiles to prevent escalation and promote stability.
The term “cross-country” in the context of a missile launch is somewhat metaphorical, referring to the missile’s ability to travel long distances across a country, often spanning the breadth of the nation.
If a missile is launched from one country to another, it would typically be described as an “international” or “intercontinental” missile launch, depending on the distances involved.
This is not the first time that Israel has launched cross-country missiles in Iran through its proxies.
In April, in retaliation to the Iranian missile and drone strikes on Israel, the latter responded days later with cross-country missile and drone strikes on Isfahan in Iran, but because the Iranian military is in a state of full alert of the Israeli response, all the Israeli missiles and drones were shot down high in Iranian airspace and the debris that fell on Iran did not cause any casualties or damages.
Iran is the first state actor in the world that dares to launch such an attack on Israeli soil, and for the record, it did this as a retaliation for the Israeli bombing of its Damascus consulate which breached international laws.
Iran’s air defence system is superb that Israel knows it is fruitless to send its warplanes or drones from Israel to strike Haniyeh’s residence in Tehran. The perpetrators were Iranians in the pay of Mossad who launched the airstrike either inside Iran or on the Iranian border.
The missile escaped the attention of Iran’s air defence system not so much because of any weaknesses in it, as the purpose of air defence all over the world is to mainly monitor its airspace from any incoming air strikes from other countries.
The assumption here is that no one in any country whether its citizens or foreigners with the right frame of mind would have ever conjured a plan to launch missiles within the country targeting individuals or infrastructures in the country unless it is a network of Mossad spies in the country.
Analysts see Haniyeh’s assassination as a major intelligence failure by the Iranian services and a deeply disturbing development for the Iranian leadership, especially at a time when security would have been heightened due to the influx of guests for the inauguration.
“That the Iranians were not able to stop this assassination is embarrassing for Iran,” said Agnes Levallois, deputy president of the Paris-based Institute of Research and Studies for the Mediterranean and Middle East.
Israel is long believed to have carried out sabotage operations through its Mossad espionage agency inside Iran, raising questions over how it appears able to obtain such detailed intelligence.
“This is a confirmation of something we have all long known: the deep extent of penetration of Iranian security services by Israel,” said Arash Azizi, a senior lecturer at Clemson University in the US.
In contrast to Hamas’ military leadership, Haniyeh was a figure relatively visible in public, making trips abroad, including to Turkiye, where he held talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, most recently in April.
“This assassination shows the entire Israeli intelligence system is well developed to have all the information and allow the launching of this type of operation,” Levallois said.
However, this admiration for the Israeli intelligence system among analysts is overblown. As Khalil al-Hayya, deputy head of Hamas, affirmed “martyr Ismail Haniyeh was not in a concealed or obscure location at the time of his assassination”, emphasising that this act should not be regarded as an intelligence triumph as one does not need any complex intelligence-gathering or operation to determine Haniyeh’s exact location or whereabouts.
Due to this, it is an oxymoron to heap admiration on the Israeli intelligence service for its success in assassinating Haniyeh.
One thing these “brilliant” analysts lack is the understanding of the concept of martyrdom in Islam, wherein the cause of a holy struggle, one achieves victory when the struggle bears fruit with one’s life intact, and one still achieves the ultimate victory of martyrdom if one is killed.
It is like a situation of “heads I win; tails, I also win” – a unique concept.
Al-Hayya noted that since the onset of the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, Israel attempted to isolate the Palestinian Resistance. However, they were taken aback to discover Haniyeh travelling between major world capitals.
Israeli intelligence services were only at their best throughout the 1960s and 70s when they were being used in noble operations to assist in the rescue of Israeli hostages with minimum loss of lives on the Israeli side.
The Al-Aqsa Flood Operation itself represents the colossus failure of Israeli intelligence and military when they were caught with their pants down, clueless about what Hamas was planning and executing.
While Israeli intelligence is on the wane, Iranian intelligence is on the rise when it successfully smashed rings of Mossad spies in Iran recently.
The writer is the Editor of Let’s Talk!, an e-newsletter on current affairs. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
