Imam Khamenei Leads Funeral Prayers for Martyr Hanyieh

By Staff, Agencies

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei has led funeral prayers for Hamas's Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh and his security guard, who were assassinated during his visit to Tehran on Wednesday.

During a ceremony held at Tehran University on Thursday, Imam Khamenei paid homage to the Hamas chief and his bodyguard, identified as Wasim Abu Shaaban.

Massive crowds of Iranian mourners took part in funeral procession for the assassinated Hamas official.

Haniyeh was in the Iranian capital to attend Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s newly-elected President Masoud Pezeshkian, where he was accompanied by other Axis of Resistance leaders.

The details of the assassination plot aren’t known yet, but the preliminary investigation points to the direct role of the “Israeli” entity and the green light from the Joe Biden administration in Washington.

Addressing the ceremony, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said the “Israeli” entity is desperate in the face of resistance fighters.

He added that Tel Aviv crimes are rooted in its inability to counter the resistance forces.

The top Iranian parliamentarian emphasized that “Israel” will commit a “strategic mistake” if it thinks that targeting the resistance front will have an impact on the ongoing developments in the region.

Qalibaf said the era of "hit and run" for the apartheid “Israel” and its main ally US has come to end.

“It is our duty to react in the right place and at the right time,” he pointed out.

The Iranian speaker warned that the “Israeli” entity will pay a “heavy price” for its act of assassination.

He noted that the “Israeli” entity’s move to assassinate resistance commanders in Iran and Lebanon is the outcome of its “weakness” and said, “Such acts of terror will have no impact on the [continuation] of our path.”

Pointing to the genocidal war against the people of Palestine in Gaza, particularly women and children, Qalibaf added, “We are witnessing the confrontation of humanity with crime there.”

Addressing huge crowds of mourners, Khalil al-Hayya, deputy chief of the Hamas Political Bureau in the Gaza Strip, said the Zionist entity is delusional to think that it can change the path of the resistance front or weaken its will through Haniyeh’s assassination.

He added that the world should try to uproot the “Israeli” entity as a cancerous tumor.

Today, the Muslim Iranians and all free nations in the world bid farewell to Ismail Haniyeh, who led the great Operation al-Aqsa Flood against the “Israeli” occupiers.

The Hamas official emphasized that “Israel’s” new crime in assassinating Haniyeh showed the world that the entity is the manifestation of evil and unrest in the region.