A video clip has spread on social media from an interview with Khaled Meshaal, the head of the Hamas movement abroad, in which he says: “Iran assassinated our brother Abu al-Abd Haniyeh – may God have mercy on him – in Tehran.”
Kashif verified the video clip and found that it was truncated and that the statement was made as a slip of the tongue and not an admission that Iran assassinated the former head of the political bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh. What Meshaal meant was the Israeli occupation, not Iran.
First: The video clip is 6 seconds long, and falls between 32:07 minutes and 32:13 minutes of the Al Arabiya TV interview with Khaled Meshaal, head of the Hamas movement abroad, which is 41:07 minutes long. It was circulated on the “ Al Arabiya News ” channel on YouTube on 9/10/2024.
Second: The axis from which the circulated video clip was taken covered the support fronts, specifically the Lebanese front. Among what Mashaal spoke about in this axis was that: “What Israel is doing today in the region, where it kills and strikes everywhere, reflects the nature of the Zionist project of hegemony and expansion.”
He added that the Israeli occupation “will conspire even against those who did not fight it,” and gave two examples of this: the Israeli occupation’s conspiracy against Jordan despite the Wadi Araba Treaty, and Egypt despite the Camp David Accords.
Third: Mashaal continued his talk on this point, presenting the example of Iran, saying: “Who started the aggression? Iran assassinated our brother Abu al-Abd Haniyeh – may God have mercy on him – in Tehran, meaning it attacked Iran’s sovereignty. It is natural for Iran to defend its sovereignty and also avenge the blood of our brother Abu al-Abd, as well as the blood of Sayyed Hassan and the leaders in Lebanon. This is natural.”
He added: “The one who started the aggression is Israel. Today, Israel is being portrayed as responding to the Iranian strike, meaning that they have turned the equation upside down as a result of American and Western bias.”
We conclude from the above that Meshaal meant that the Israeli occupation assassinated Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. How can he say that Tehran’s sovereignty was attacked and mean at the same time that Iran assassinated Haniyeh?
How can he say that it is natural for Iran to defend its sovereignty and avenge the blood of Haniyeh, Nasrallah and the leaders in Lebanon, while he means that Iran is the one who assassinated Haniyeh?
If we assume that the intention is that Iran assassinated Haniyeh, this means that Iran has attacked its own sovereignty, and will defend its sovereignty from itself. This is illogical.
Also, Meshaal’s clarification that the Israeli occupation was the one that started the aggression indicates that he meant that Israel was the one that assassinated Haniyeh, not Iran.
Hamas announced on Wednesday 31/7/2024 the assassination of its political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in an Israeli raid on his residence in Tehran, after he participated in the inauguration ceremony of the new Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian.