New Delhi:
In response to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in its capital Tehran, Iran has arrested over two dozen individuals, including high-ranking intelligence officers, military officials, and staff at a military-run guesthouse in the capital, New York Times .Israel’s elite intelligence agency Mossad enlisted Iranian security agents to plant explosives at the guesthouse where Haniyeh was staying. Haniyeh, who headed Hamas’s political office in Qatar, was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president. The assassination, occurring just hours after the president’s swearing-in ceremony, is seen as a massive intelligence and security failure for Iran.
“The perception that Iran can neither protect its homeland nor its key allies could be fatal for the Iranian regime because it basically signals to its foes that if they can’t topple the Islamic Republic, they can decapitate it,” said Ali Vaez, Iran director for the International Crisis Group, told New York Times.