International Desk, 26 Oct (EFE).- The United States, the United Nations, the European Union, other European powers, and Arab countries were united on Saturday in calling for restraint following Israel’s early morning attack on Iran.
“It seems that Israel did not hit anything that was not a military target. I hope this is the end,” United States President Joe Biden told reporters in Pennsylvania on Saturday after other government officials had stressed that the Israeli offensive was limited in scope, as it did not target nuclear or oil facilities, which could have led to a worsening of the conflict.
The Israeli military on Saturday launched what it called “precise strikes against military targets” in the Persian country in reprisal, it said, “for months of continuous attacks by the Iranian regime against the State of Israel.”
Four soldiers were killed in the attack on military bases in the provinces of Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran but Iran downplayed the damage caused by the Israeli attack.
“Iran reserves the right to a legitimate and legal response at the appropriate time and stresses the establishment of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon to prevent the deaths of innocent people,” the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff said in a statement.
According to the statement, Israeli warplanes launched an attack using long-range air-to-ground missiles with small warheads from an area controlled by US troops in Iraq, 100 kilometers from Iran’s borders.
Multilateral institutions and European powers supported Israel’s right to defend itself
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “deeply alarmed,” that “all acts of escalation are condemnable and must stop” and reiterated an “appeal to all parties to cease all military actions, including in Gaza and Lebanon,” according to a statement issued by his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric.
EU spokeswoman for the European External Action Service, Nabila Massrali, warned of a “dangerous cycle of attacks and retaliations risks causing a further expansion of the regional conflict.”
The EEAS spokeswoman added that “acknowledging Israel’s right to self-defense, the EU calls on all parties to exercise utmost restraint to avoid an uncontrollable escalation, which is in no one’s interest.”
The United Kingdom prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, called Iran not to respond.
“Israel has a right to defend itself against Iranian aggression,” but “we need to avoid further regional escalation and urge all sides to show restraint. Iran should not respond,” Starmer told a news conference at the Commonwealth summit in Samoa.
“My message to Iran is clear: such massive escalatory responses cannot go on forever. This has to stop now,” Scholz said in an English-language post on his X social media account.
Meanwhile, Russia said it was “deeply concerned” and that “it is necessary to stop provoking Iran and abandon the spiral of uncontrolled escalation.”
“We consider an urgent normalization of the political-military situation in the Middle East that meets the interests of all reasonable players both in this region and beyond its borders to be extremely necessary,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
The Arab neighborhood said Israel violated international law
Arab countries demanded that Israel respect Iran’s sovereignty while calling for restraint.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry said the attacks on Iran “constitute a violation of its sovereignty and a breach of international laws and norms,” urged “all parties to exercise maximum restraint and de-escalation” and called on the international community to “fulfill its roles and responsibilities” in persuading Israel to stop its attacks.
Jordan’s Foreign Ministry expressed its “absolute rejection” of the attack and the “dangerous escalation” marked by “violations of international law” by Israel.
The United Arab Emirates, which established diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020, also “strongly” condemned the attacks.
Egypt – the main mediator between Israel and Hamas along with the US and Qatar – said the attack “fuels the state of tension” in the Middle East.
“Egypt warns against the dangers of the current escalation that could lead, either intentionally or as a result of miscalculations, to sliding the region into a dangerous confrontation,” the North African country’s foreign ministry added.
Iran’s main allies in the Middle East, Syria and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, decried Israel’s “defiance” of international law and its “insistence” on waging a “genocidal war” in both Gaza and Lebanon.
The Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah condemned the “treacherous” attack and accused the United States of giving it its “explicit and full support,” as well as the “tragedies” in Gaza and Lebanon, saying Washington “bears full responsibility for the massacres, tragedies and pain.” EFE
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