Politico: Iran may be reconsidering a 'multi-pronged attack' on Israel

Mr Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran a week ago, hours after attending the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Following the incident, Iran vowed to impose “harsh punishment” on Israel, which neither denied nor admitted any role in the assassination.

Washington had expected a large-scale missile and drone strike on the Jewish state earlier this week, but so far such an attack has not been carried out.

Politico said in an article on September 7 that this was explained by the diplomatic efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden, which has engaged in intense diplomacy in recent days to ensure that US allies in the Middle East lobby Tehran to reconsider its plan to attack Israel.

According to two senior US officials who spoke to Politico, Washington has warned Tehran through intermediaries that "a major attack would only increase tensions and risk direct conflict between the two countries."

Iranian authorities initially rejected the US argument that Mr Haniyeh’s assassination did not require a large-scale response because it was the result of a bomb planted in a covert operation and not part of a larger attack on Iran, but Tehran is now “increasingly sympathetic” to that interpretation of events, the sources said.

Another argument Washington used was the fact that no Iranian citizens were killed in the strike on the Hamas political leader, officials added.

“Tehran appears to have reconsidered and the US does not expect an attack on Israel to be imminent,” the sources said. However, they added, “some Iranian reaction” to the assassination of Mr Haniyeh should still be expected.

Earlier, the Washington Post reported on August 6 that Israel only informed the US about the assassination of the Hamas political leader after the incident, which caused "surprise and outrage" at the White House.

Speaking at an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on August 7, Iran's acting Foreign Minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, stressed that with the US preventing the United Nations Security Council from taking "appropriate action... against the Israeli regime's aggressive actions, Iran has no other option but to use its inherent legitimate right to self-defense."