ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said on Saturday his country supported Iran’s call for an extraordinary session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) following the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh earlier this week.
The Hamas leader was targeted on July 31 in Tehran, where he had gone to attend the inauguration of newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian. His funeral prayer was led by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei the next day before his body was taken to Qatar and buried in Doha.
The strike that took Haniyeh’s life was widely believed to have been ordered by Israel, though the Netanyahu administration neither confirmed nor denied the allegation.
Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported earlier in the day its Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani had demanded an extraordinary meeting of OIC foreign ministers before contacting Dar with a request to participate.
“The Deputy Prime Minister fully supported this call and confirmed that Pakistan would actively participate in the important meeting,” the foreign office said in a social media post.
It mentioned that Kani shared Iran’s “deep anguish” over the assassination of the Hamas leader during his phone call.
Dar conveyed similar sentiments while also condemning the developments in Gaza where Palestinians have been targeted by Israel’s war machine since last October.
Iran has vowed to retaliate against Israel, which killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon hours before the Hamas leader was targeted.
The situation has created fears of a broader regional war, with the United States saying it will move additional warships and fighter jets toward the Middle East.
Top Pakistani parliamentarians, along with thousands of people, offered funeral prayers in absentia for Haniyeh during Friday congregations.
The National Assembly of Pakistan also passed a unanimous resolution expressing “unified grief and anger” over the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip.
Israel launched its air and ground offensive targeting Gaza following a surprise attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken hostages.
The Palestinian group said the attack was in response to the deteriorating condition of Palestinian people living under occupation.
Israel’s response was widely viewed as disproportionate by the international community in which over 39,000 people, mostly women and children, have died.
Israel was taken to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by South Africa on the allegation of committing genocide where other nations joined the proceedings as well.
