Iran has said it has the “legal right” to respond to the assassination in Tehran last week of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, an attack blamed on Israel amid the Gaza conflict, AFP reports.

“No one has the right to doubt Iran’s legal right to punish the Zionist regime”, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told a regular news conference, referring to Israel.

He maintained that Iran “does not seek to aggravate tensions in the region”, which have soared since the Israel-Hamas fighting broke out in early October and rose further since last week’s attack in Tehran.

Kanani said: “We believe the consolidation of stability and security in the region will be achieved by punishing the aggressor and creating a deterrent against the adventurous behaviour and extraterritorial terrors of the Zionist regime.”