This handout picture released by the U.S. Navy on May 17, 2019 shows the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and the Wasp-class Amphibious Assault Ship USS Kearsarge sailing alongside as the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group conduct joint operations in the Arabian Sea. (Credit: Brian M. Wilbur/U.S. Navy/AFP)
Jordan's foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, will embark on a rare visit to Tehran on Sunday, state media reported, as fears of an escalation between Iran and Israel grow following the killing of Hamas chief Ismael Haniyeh.
The political head of Hamas was killed early on Wednesday in Tehran where he was attending the inauguration of Iran's president Masoud Pezeshkian.
Iran and the Hamas militants, which Tehran supports, vowed to retaliate and blamed the strike on Israel, which has declined to comment.
"Jordan's foreign minister Ayman Safadi is traveling to Tehran today (Sunday) to meet and exchange views with Iranian officials on regional and international issues," the official IRNA news agency said.
Safadi will be meeting with Iran's acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri, it added.
The Jordanian foreign ministry confirmed the trip and said Safadi would also deliver a message from King Abdullah II to the Iranian president on "the situation in the region and bilateral relations".
Iran has held talks with multiple Arab countries including Jordan, Egypt, Oman and Qatar among others since Haniyeh's killing.
Tehran repeatedly reaffirmed its "inherent right" to take action against Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his country is at "a very high level" of preparedness for any scenario – "defensive and offensive."
Haniyeh's killing came hours after Israel killed a senior commander of the Lebanese, Tehran-backed Hezbollah militant group, Fuad Shukur, which Israel blamed for a deadly weekend rocket strike on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards have said Haniyeh was killed by a "short-range projectile" launched from outside his accommodation in northern Tehran.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari had earlier told journalists "there was no other Israeli aerial attack ... in all the Middle East" on the night Shukr was killed in in Lebanon.
The dual killings are the latest of several major incidents that have inflamed regional tensions during the Gaza war, which has drawn in Iran-backed militant groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
Jordan's foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, will embark on a rare visit to Tehran on Sunday, state media reported, as fears of an escalation between Iran and Israel grow following the killing of Hamas chief Ismael Haniyeh.
The political head of Hamas was killed early on Wednesday in Tehran where he was attending the inauguration of Iran's president...