Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi embarked on a rare visit to Iran on Sunday, engaging in talks amidst escalating tensions between Tehran and Israel. The visit comes in the wake of the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, an incident that has ignited fears of a wider conflict in the region.
Haniyeh, the political head of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, was killed early Wednesday in Tehran where he had attended the inauguration of Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian. Both Iran and Hamas, which Tehran supports, have accused Israel of the attack, vowing retaliation. Israel, however, has remained silent on the matter.
ISNA news agency reported that Safadi, upon landing in Tehran, met and held consultations with Iran’s acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri. Later, Safadi met with Pezeshkian, who condemned Haniyeh’s death as a “grave” and “brazen” act by Israel, reaffirming Iran’s commitment to avenge his death.
Prior to the meeting, IRNA had indicated that Safadi would be engaging in discussions with Iranian officials on regional and international issues during his visit. The Jordanian foreign ministry stated that Safadi was carrying a message from King Abdullah II to the Iranian president concerning “the situation in the region and bilateral relations”.
Meanwhile, the royal court in Amman announced that King Abdullah had received a phone call from French President Emmanuel Macron, where they discussed the “dangerous situation in the region”. King Abdullah emphasized the need for “further international efforts to reach comprehensive calm and prevent a regional expansion of the conflict”.
Since Haniyeh’s killing, Iran has initiated talks with numerous Arab nations including Jordan, Egypt, Oman, and Qatar, among others. Tehran has consistently asserted its “inherent right” to take action against Israel.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that his country is at “a very high level” of preparedness for any scenario – “defensive and offensive”.
The killing of Haniyeh occurred shortly after Israel targeted a senior commander of the Lebanese Tehran-backed Hezbollah militant group, Fuad Shukr. Israel attributed Shukr’s death to a weekend rocket strike that resulted in the deaths of young people on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed that Haniyeh was killed by a “short-range projectile” launched from outside his accommodation in Tehran. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters that “there was no other Israeli aerial attack… in all the Middle East” on the night Shukr was killed in Lebanon.
The recent incidents, including the killings of Haniyeh and Shukr, mark the latest escalation of tensions in the region during the ongoing Gaza war. This conflict has drawn in Iran-backed militant groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen, further complicating the situation and raising the specter of wider regional instability.
