Haniyeh assassinated at inauguration, IRN

Israel assassinated the HAMAS political leader, Ismael Haniyeh, who was visiting Iran. So Iran's government is under pressure to retaliate.

Haniyeh was negotiating peace in Gaza with Israel. By killing him, Netanyahu expressed refusal to negotiate. The US should say that that refusal is unacceptable, as is the assassination of enemy negotiators.

I suspect that Netanyahu intended to provoke war between Iran and Israel, figuring that the US would be dragged along into supporting Israel and then into fighting Iran. This would make it even harder for the US to do what it must do, which is pressure Netanyahu into ending Israel's atrocities in Gaza.

At a deeper level, it conveys to the US government Netanyahu's message that "I can force you into war whenever I wish, so be obedient."

But that aspect may not work.

Israel tried something similar in April, attacking Iran. Iran retaliated with a wave of drones, and the US helped shoot down those drones — but outside Iran. And it did not join in any attack against Iran. At that point, Iran stated that honor was satisfied. I guess that the US and Iran understand what Netanyahu is doing and that they do not intend to let Netanyahu make them fight.

Israel is not the only nation-state to have recently committed or attempted assassination of enemies living in exile. India has done this, Rwanda, and Russia too.

We condemn those assassinations — which does not imply support for the causes they stand for — and we should also condemn it when Israel does it.