Russian President and Iran-ally Vladimir Putin has called on Tehran to avoid attacking civilians during its expected assault on the Jewish state over the assassination of Hamas’ top leader, according to senior Iranian sources.
As Tehran pressed Moscow to deliver Russian-made Su-35 fighter jets on Monday, the Kremlin’s National Security Secretary Sergei Shoigu delivered a message from Putin asking Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to practice restraint, the sources told Reuters.
Moscow is now the latest superpower to urge Iran to have a measured response to the death of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in an alleged Israeli bombing in Tehran last week.
Russia issued its warning while in the process of providing advanced air-defense systems to Tehran in preparation for its retaliatory attack on Israel, according to The New York Times.
The Iranian defense ministry has denied such reports.
While Putin has criticized Haniyeh’s killing as a “very dangerous assassination” that threatens the stability of the Middle East, while also blaming the US as Israel’s top ally, the Russian president has stressed that the war in Gaza cannot be allowed to spread across the region.
Russia’s warning comes after both the US and Jordan issued similar concerns, with Iran expected to face additional deterrence from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), an intergovernmental group consisting of 57 member states.
Tehran had called for an emergency meeting of the OIC on Wednesday to discuss Haniyeh’s assassination and Iran’s response.
OIC officials issued a statement Wednesday morning condemning Haniyeh’s death on Iranian soil and Israel’s war in Gaza.
And while officials skirted around discussing Iran’s impending attack in Israel, they claimed the OIC needed to “avoid the risk of full-scale regional war that would undermine the security and stability of the entire Middle East region.”
Along with Iran, Hezbollah has vowed to launch its own retaliatory attack against Israel for the death of a senior commander who was killed a day before Haniyeh.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned Hezbollah will pay a heavy price should its near-daily attacks against northern Israel escalate to a point of no return.
“This may also deteriorate into a war. It’s not theoretical, it’s real,” Gallants said during a military event on Wednesday.
With Post wires
