News - Middle East: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says Beijing supports Iran in defending its "sovereignty, security and national dignity" amid Tehran’s promise to harshly punish Israel over the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political bureau of the Hamas resistance movement.

In a phone call with Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani on Sunday, Wang repeated Beijing's denunciation of the Hamas chief’s assassination in Tehran late last month, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

He said the strike against Haniyeh had violated Iran's sovereignty and posed a threat to regional stability.

He added that the killing of Haniyeh had "directly undermined the Gaza ceasefire negotiation process and undermined regional peace and stability."

Haniyeh was assassinated on July 31, while he was in Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian.