Guardian: Iran may rethink reprisals against Israel

Iran may be rethinking the scale and format of its planned reprisal against Israel after the assassination of Hamas’ political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, officials have suggested.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials have reportedly concluded that Hezbollah is “determined to carry out an attack in the next few days in response to Israel’s killing of senior commander Fouad Shukur, but the degree to which it will coordinate with Iran is unclear,” British newspaper The Guardian has reported.

U.S. and Israeli sources have reportedly said in recent days that Tehran is still deciding on the scale and scope of its response after significant diplomatic pressure to avoid civilian casualties.

“Iran appears likely to target those responsible for the attack, specifically the Mossad and its agencies, rather than civilians,” The Guardian said.

The U.S. says it is sending messages to Iran that an attack would be counterproductive, claiming that it has reassembled the military alliance to defend Israel that operated in April during the last clash between Iran and Israel.

The U.S. is also telling Iran that Israel and Hamas may be close to a ceasefire agreement, but the explicit evidence for this remains slim, and has been dangled in front of states in the region before only for an agreement to prove elusive.