two assassinations within hours of each other that have pushed the middle east to the brink of an all-out regional war, the first one claimed by israel killed hisbullah chief of staff fuad shukr in beirot, and the other one took the life of hamas political bureau chief ismail hania in the iranian capital, tehran. now israel hasn't claimed responsibility for that one, but the killing has israeli fingerprints all over it. joining me now to discuss all this, is a man who knew ismael.

canania personally and has put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears to the palestinian of cause throughout his political life that spends decades. george gelowe, thank you so much for joining us. who was ismail hania, you knew him quite well, and why was he key for palestinian liberation? well, over the last 303, four, five days, he's been the chief negotiator for. the palestinian side in the apparent attempt by israel to free what it calls its hostages. palestinians would call them prisoners, or the prisoners in the israeli jails should also be called hostages, because they're both the same, they're being held against their will, for no good reason, they were taken by either side, so they're either both prisoners or they're both hostages and and he was the chief negotiator

on behalf of the palestinian side and not since medieval times, has a more high profile negotiator being killed by the people he was negotiating with, this is i think the first thing to say, but his proper title was the head of the political bureau. that's an important title, an important post, but it is a political post. he wasn't a military leader neither when i met him in 2009 uh when i took a siege breaking convoy from britain as a matter of fact he gave me his palestinian passport which i have in a safe at home uh because he wanted to give me a palestinian passport but he had none to hand so he gave me his and it was touching at the time pont of course now and uh will uh treasure it and of

pass to my children, he was the head of the political wing of hamas, i'm not myself a supporter of hamas, i'm a a supporter of the arafat wing of the palestinian struggle, but i greatly respected him, and more importantly, the palestinians greatly supported him, and they voted for him, and if there were elections. in the west bank, he would win those elections by a country mile, so this was very important palestinian political leader, and i take the old fashion view that you can't pick other people's political leaders for them, you have to negotiate, deal with the people that they choose, and they chose him, they would have chosen him again, he was very significant and of really quite phil. philosophical gentleman,

he was anyone's idea of a good uh, a good partner to talk with, which is why it was of such success in the position that he held. you just mentioned, he wasn't a military person, he was political bureau chief. why then was he targeted and why particularly in iran? well, the second is easier to answer, it was a provocation to... to iran, because netanyahu's whole stick is to draw the whole region into all-out war in the hope that might be well founded, might not be, that the united states will follow them into that war and will make uh war against all of israel's enemies simultaneously with russia and china of on the side of the enemy. i'm not sure that netanyahu is right. about that, but that's

why it was done. if they wanted to kill him, of well they could have killed him in doha uh, anyt. uh, but they waited until he was guest of. iran and knowing that in iranian culture, in islamic culture, to kill an honored guest in your house demands the highest level of revenge, retaliation, and i think that we're going to see a retaliation of new kind, we're going to see something which in quantity and or in quality will be quite unp'. precidented in the middle east as to why him, just because he was there, because he was high profile leader of a resistance movement, which is taking a great toll on the invasion force of netanyahu, just this day, seven

israeli officers of in some cases quite senior rank have been wounded and... some of them critically winded in hamas resistance operation raffa, this is a daily occurrence, this uh hamas resistance has not been beaten, of course nearly every house has been destroyed or damaged, hundreds of thousands of people have been murdered or mutilated, all institutions have been destroyed, schools, universities, hospitals, anything. things civic or civil has been systematically destroyed, but they have not destroyed the fighting spirit of the palestinian resistance, and he was an emblem of that resistance, and the best known one, yeah, so it looks like almost like you know they

needed some kind of a win, and through his assassination they feel like they can tell their people that there something that they have achieved, but the other question, george, is... we are well aware of how the western media spreads propaganda, but in this particular case, before any investigation was even begun by tehran, of course the incident happened in tehran, we had you know new york times for example talking about how the bombs were planted, how you know it was through whatsapp, what was the aim of trying to spread that propaganda before any investigation? well, it's the tel aviv times rather than the new york times, i'm afraid they've disgraced themselves. throughout this conflict and for many decades before that, they are not a reputable newspaper, if they ever were, they are not one any longer, and they were quickly out the traps with story that is completely false, uh, the iranian

sides say, and this is bad enough, that the model was carried out by a handheld projectile firing seven kilogram warhead, in other words a kind of rpg type weapon uh, and that required the murderers to get very close to the building to carry it out. that's bad enough, and uh, i have no doubt the iranians are doing their best to learn from the security failure that that is. uh, there was earlier. talk about a submarine launched missile, but the iranian side have ruled that out and definitely they've ruled out the planting of explosives in the building allegedly two months before, which is what the new york times uh claimed falsely. i have no uh doubt. uh, it's to so confusion, to so

uh doubt about the loyalty of people involved to start a witch hunt. for escape goats as to how this dreadful thing was allowed to happen, was able to happen, uh, but the israelis are accomplished killers, you know, they have, they have killed so many people before, and in so many different ways, as i told you, i'm an araphatist, president arafat was almost certainly murdered by them uh, by poison uh, by by polone, uh, which of course would have required someone close to him to... administer it, but i have no doubt that it was an israeli operation. i was with him at his death bed in paris uh, when he passed away, and i could clearly see that this was too rapid and two total, a collapse to be uh,

just through normal illness or ill health, so they have they've assassinated palestinian leaders, all of uh... hania's predecessors were assassinated by israel, mr. rantisi, the founder of hamas, sheikh yasin, they were all murdered by... by israel, but it doesn't seem to have gotten through to israeli propagandists, that you can cut down the flowers, but you can't stop the spring. you can kill the leaders, but you cannot kill the cause. indeed, to a remarkable extent, hamas has got stronger and stronger and stronger after each of its leaders have been murdered by israel. yeah, is this case of you know when this a marchier is actually more dangerous than when he is living, because if

we look at the case of haniah, if we look at the way the world has reacted to it, the classical sunni shia divide that the west has always played it, do you think that he is actually more dangerous now in that in martidom than when he was alive? well, i don't think he was dangerous in any military sense, he was dangerous because he he seemed. to embody the hope of negotiation that could end uh what is now 76 years of disaster catastrophe uh which has plunged the region into war after war after war ideologically yeah undoubtedly his uh stature will have been enhanced in the pantheon of marterdom uh he will loom larger and someone has already picked up. his mantle uh, i have no doubt uh, the youth that followed uh ismaal hania will

follow the next leader too uh, so if they killed him because they thought he was dangerous, i suspect they haven't seen anything yet, now of course there is a question of the reaction that will come uh especially from iran and lebanon, um, there's a lot of questions of now the west asking iran, uh don't escalate, and we've seen it in united nations and asking iran not escalate this war, why did they not tell netanyahu to kill is while honey, which has actually escalated things, yes, depends when they want to start the clock uh, for the escalation, uh, what israel has been doing for the last 300 plus days is beyond the world escalation, the murder and mutilation. of hundreds of thousands of people, most of them women and children, one would have thought was the

ultimate definition of escalation, murdering political opponents in other people's capitals is very big escalation and was deliberately designed to be so uh, so they keep coming with what they call or don't call, but they're all the same, mediation efforts. whilst iran has i think made clear that uh what is there to mediate about this great crime was committed in our capital city as deliberate insult to us and we must answer it now if someone came along i mean imagine this was the bazar uh in tehran if they came along and made some exceptional offer the the abandonment. of all occupied territories, the imprisonment of netanyahu, the end of this

war and all fother wars, the freedom of palestine if that's what they were offering, i'm sure iran would be ready to trade that kind of deal, but that's not of course what they are offering, the americans are offering uh to return to the nuclear deal, well we're way past the nuclear deal, absolutely. way past it uh out of washington today it said uh that sanctions on iran will be lifted, but these are uh false promises and in any case would not expiate a sin, a crime of the magnitude that has been committed, and it isn't just iran of course, the lebanese resistance are mulling their response, the iraqi resistance, the yemeny. resistance the syrian government whose territory was seized

so long ago, now there's not that many people around unlike me who've actually been there and seen the crime that they committed in 1967 when when the beatles were top of the hit parade, that's how long ago uh the crime the seizure of the golan heights dates back to, so it's it's the whole region, it's the whole... cresent of resistance, and crucially, it's the masses inside the arab states that are not in the axis of resistance. who are boiling with rage and desire for uh for retaliation uh, that's why the foreign minister of jordan had to go to tehran, because they have to show their people uh that they are not uh enemies of iran, friends of israel and the united states, of course whether they are will be seen in the next hours, days or whenever the

retaliation happens, ditto, the president of... of egypt, making it clear that he would not be part of any anti-iran axis and so on. well, we'll see about that, but these leaders are only saying these things because of the public pressure inside their own countries. that's a very interesting, i think assessment, especially given the fact that you know the west has always divided the muslims in order to be able to conquer them. so the sunnia divide is what we see iran against all the other arab nation. do you think this time they have failed? because even among the common men, you know, in all the countries we are watching, we can see a united front in morning, ism khania for example, do you think that this time this tactic has failed? i hope it's filled, you can always count on some sectarians to uh uh

continue to uh consider it more important, whether you pray like this or pray like that. uh, whilst you're the hands of both of you are being cut off, uh, you'll always find such people, but i hope uh, certainly in the region that this has marked a significant turning point, after all, the forces that are striking israel are shiite militias, shiite armies, shiite countries, the countries states. differentiate between the country, the state and the people uh that are collaborating with israel, call themselves sunnis, though they are a pretty poor example of that uh, so let's hope that the sacrifice made by the remaining family, by the way, ismael hania has lost 60 members of his

family, 60, six zero, uh, so... so any has left, and i condol them now, the the blood will not have been shed in vein if it marks an historic turning point of placing a side uh doctrinal differences for the sacred cause of palestine, absolutely. now i mean, you've mentioned iran a shia country, in the forefront really of fighting for the rights the... palestinians, why do you think that is the case? mean, this can be at the detriment of iran itself, but they are the strongest voice they have been for a long time um, for a sunni population really of palestine, why is that? yeah, i mean, as far as i know, and if there is one, i've never met them, uh, there is no single shiite in gaza, uh,

everyone there is a christian or a sunni muslim, yeah, iran has... done everything humanly possible and some things that most people thought were impossible to come to their aid, and this is surely very significant, it will be significant on the judgement day for sure uh, but it should be significant before that in the history that is being written now. uh, the resistance that we spoke about earlier in gaza is only able to resist because of the... support from iran and they have said so many times, many, many times, hania said it, khalid michile said it, all of the leaders of the resistance organizations have paid tribute to iran for the help that they have been giving. i doubt, and i've never met one if there is, if there

are any sunnis in heizballah, but hezballah has now given... hundreds of martars and is ready to give thousands, maybe tens of thousands more to resist israel, and if possible to help to liberate palestine. this is undeniable, and that which cannot be denied uh will eventually silence even the most foolish sectarians who continue to seek to exacerbate difference. answers: absolutely, and i think it is very much part the shia islam to stand up for the truth and to stand up against the oppressed. i think this is seen through the history of shia islam, it doesn't matter. "who you are standing for, as long as people are oppressed, you will stand for them, i think that's where it springs for, but again, given what we are watching here in the uk at the

moment, in terms of the riots, the anti-muslim protest, islamophobic messages on the streets of london, do you think that has got anything to do with the death or the martydum of ismail hania, well the leader of these race riots who ironically is right" now sitting a sunlounger in a five star hotel in cyprus paid for by the israel lobby that pay him a monthly stipend of 160,000 per month. that's a lot of money, serious lot of money. uh, he himself said so, that uh, people like him have moved into the actions they're now taking because of the weak. marches in london and elsewhere around the country in support the palestinians, so we don't need to look in the crystal ball, we can listen to uh the

leader of these riots himself, that's what he said on video, so these race riots, for that's what they are, of course, they hate muslims most of all, but really if there were no... muslims, the riots and the mentality behind them would still exist, they hate people of color, that's why african people who are not muslims, sikhs who are not muslims, hindus who are not muslims, black people of all kinds have been attacked savagely by mobs over the last few days in england, there's no pretense of of finding out what religion. are before they try to lynch them uh and they set up road block in a town city really called middlesborough and they were literally saying on camera that

white drivers could come through but black people would not be allowed to drive through and god knows what would have happened to them if they'd fallen into their hands so they're race riots but of course uh the existence of a thrive. muslim community in britain is a particular thumb in the eye for them, because the muslims in britain have made success of their lives, despite government policies of neglect and de-industrialization and so on. the muslim population in britain has done very well through hard work, building small and medium-sized businesses into big businesses. uh, they have the fruits of their success sitting outside their door and in the in the carriage way and the the drive, the they they

have a community, they have strong family ties, extended family ties, the children might one day be with their grandma, but the next day be with their aunt as likely as to be with their parents, they they have mosks, they have. have community organizations, all the things that many of the people who were on the rampage over the weekend don't have, they don't have community, they don't have extended family, many of them don't have any family at all, many of them have many times been in jail, many of them are on drugs, most them are on alcohol, they are people who have failed in life. "and that bitterness is what you see coming out in these riots, it's very interesting because you know we watched one the radio presenters interview, guy who was

blaming immigrants for not getting a job, and when they probbed him, it found out that he was the sex offender, and that was the reason he wasn't getting the job, but of course it was the fault of the muslims. it's such an interesting discussion, george, but we are out of time, thank you so much time, and thank you all for watching, goodbye. when you go to our states, our soils are pierced on all sides to search for precious metals such as gold, but often there is not even the slightest accessible road to reach the areas where they exploit gold, much less some basic social services, that is why we decided to revolve. and take the destiny of our countries in hand, imperialism has one

thousand tricks. in his bag, you must be vigilant, vigilant and very vigilant. i therefore hope that these moments will be for us story that we will write, not just for the aes, but especially for africa and for the whole world. by the time you see this, the world might be at war, the middle east and west asia, almost certainly so, the world waits for the new superpower in the west asiasian theater of operations, the islamic republic of iran and its friends in the axis of resistance to retatalian to the israeli savagery that killed two important.

commanders, have it out with gallowing, why don't you?

the headlines, the palestinian resistance movement, hamas appoints yahya sin war as its new political leader, saying the move shows unity within the group. the organization of islamic cooperation is set to convene today for an extraordinary meeting on israel's assassination of hamas leader ismail honey and also in our headlines israels in discriminate strikes kill at least 30 palestinians in gaza in a single day as the genocidal war's death toll approaches 40,00.