Haniyeh killing: India maintains silence

India maintains silence after Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh's death in Tehran, navigating relations with Iran and Israel.

India maintained a studied silence a day after the political head of Hamas, Ismael Haniyeh, was killed in Tehran in an early morning incident on Wednesday. Sources here indicated that the issue is sensitive because of India’s close relations with both Iran and Israel and also because Iranian authorities are yet to reveal details of the incident that led to the death of Mr. Haniyeh.

Ismael Haniyeh’s death came hours after he participated in the swearing-in ceremony of the new President of Iran Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian alongside other international dignitaries including Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari. Officials here declined to comment if the presence of the Hamas leader and figures from Hezbollah, the Houthis and Islamic Jihad in the gathering posed a security concern for the Indian side indicating that the guests were invited by the Government of Iran and therefore were not a concern for the Indian authorities. 

Minister Gadkari returned on Wednesday after spending two days in Tehran. At the conclusion of the event, President Pezeshkian posed with the guests in a group photograph that included Mr. Gadkari as well as Haniyeh and the head of Islamic Jihad Ziyad al-Nakhalah, Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general Naim Qassem and Yemen’s Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam.

Mr. Haniyeh was reportedly staying in the Sa’adabad complex, an affluent neighbourhood in the northern part of the Iranian capital and Mr. Gadkari was in a high-end hotel. The reported loud blast that rocked the northern part of the city was far from where the Indian delegation was located. Indian community sources in Tehran informed The Hindu that the overall situation in Tehran remains tense as Iran has announced three days of national mourning and the authorities have restricted access to mobile internet which has made even internal communication difficult. Iran has a small Sikh community in Tehran and Bandar Abbas and around 4,000 Indians in Qom who are students in the Islamic seminaries. One Indian source said, that though the death of Mr. Haniyeh has highlighted the international security challenges for Iran, the new government has pressing economic issues that it may prioritise over anything else at the moment.

The attack in Tehran has once again shown the tight rope walk that India faces in the West Asian region in the backdrop of the conflict in Gaza. India was one of the first countries to condemn the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel as ‘terror attack’ but it has not officially designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation. Israel’s outgoing ambassador to India Naor Gilon had urged India to designate Hamas as a terror outfit. However, India chose to reiterate its support for a two-state formula to resolve the current conflict.