Tehran.-Iran’s regime on Tuesday refused to abandon its threats against Israel as requested by several Western countries and said it does not ask for “authorization” to respond to its enemy, which it accuses of the operation carried out in Tehran in which the head of the Hamas terrorist group, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed.
The leaders of the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany called on Iran on Tuesday to “renounce its continued threats of a military attack against Israel.”
The White House warned that an Iranian attack “could have an impact on talks” scheduled for Thursday to reach a ceasefire in the war in Gaza, triggered in October by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’ attack on Israel.
But the Iranian Foreign Ministry, through its spokesman Naser Kanani, replied on Tuesday that “such a request has no political logic and is totally contrary to the principles and rules of international law.”
Iran and its regional allies in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen have vowed to respond to the July 31 assassination of the Hamas leader, which they accuse Israel of, and to that of the military commander of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah a day earlier in Beirut, the latter of which Jerusalem claims responsibility.
“The Islamic Republic is determined to defend its sovereignty (…) and does not ask anyone’s permission to exercise its legitimate rights,” Kanani insisted.
The United States, which has recently stepped up its military presence in the Middle East, said it expected “a series of attacks” by Iran and its allies this week.
President Joe Biden and the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom have warned of the “serious consequences” of an attack on regional security.
Both German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for a de-escalation in separate phone calls to Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian.
“Iran will never bow to pressure,” he said, according to a statement from the official Irna news agency.
Fears of a regional conflagration have led many airlines to suspend flights to several Middle Eastern countries.
At Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, boards indicated that several flights had been cancelled on Tuesday. “There is no visibility, you can’t predict anything,” lamented Chava Ben-Yehonatan, a 75-year-old Israeli pensioner.
The efforts to avoid a regional escalation coincide with diplomatic efforts to secure a truce in Gaza that would allow the release of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas and give some relief to the 2.4 million inhabitants of this Palestinian territory facing a humanitarian catastrophe.
On Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike left ten people dead in a family in the eastern town of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, a medical official told AFP. Only a three-month-old baby survived.
Witnesses also reported shelling of two houses in the al-Bureij camp for displaced persons in the centre of the territory. “We have taken out one body and we are still searching for eight missing people,” Hasan Daou, a rescue worker, told AFPTV.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told visiting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Moscow on Tuesday that he was “concerned about civilian casualties” in Gaza.
In this context, France, Germany and the United Kingdom stated that there can be “no further delay” in the negotiation of a ceasefire.
The countries mediating in this conflict (Qatar, Egypt and the United States) called the warring parties to new talks on Thursday, in which Israel promised to participate.
Hamas, which has not publicly revealed whether it will attend, on Sunday called for the implementation of Biden’s three-phase plan for a truce “rather than engaging in further negotiations or presenting new proposals.”
The proposal, which Biden attributed to Israel, envisages a six-week truce, an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza and an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
The conflict erupted on October 7 with Hamas’ unprecedented attack on southern Israel, which killed 1,198 people, most of them civilians, according to a count based on official Israeli data.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and has launched a military campaign in Gaza that has left 39,929 dead, according to the Ministry of Health of this Hamas-ruled territory.Infobae.
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2024-08-15 08:18:31
