Washington.-In the midst of the escalation of tension in the Middle East following Iran’s attack on Saturday and Israel’s retaliation in the early hours of this Friday, the United States Government distanced itself and assured that “it is not involved in any offensive operation.”
It was Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who affirmed that the United States has no interference in Israel’s retaliation once morest Iran and assured that they are working to “de-escalate” the conflict.
«The United States is not involved in any offensive operations. What I can say is that we are working to de-escalate,” Blinken said at the final press conference of the G7 summit in Capri, when asked regarding the Israeli attack on Iran.
Along the same lines, he added: “I don’t want to say anything else, just that we are not involved.”
For the American official, “the only thing preventing a ceasefire in Gaza is Hamas, because it has rejected generous offers from Israel. Hamas seems much more interested in a regional conflict.
Israel’s attack on an Iranian military base was reported by the American press, amid controversy. Iran denied the attack: first it said that anti-aircraft defenses had shot down several drones and then it limited itself to saying that they were “several flying objects.” And, until now, neither the Israeli government nor the Pentagon had officially recognized the operation.
Several explosions shook central Iran this Friday, in what North American officials presented as an Israeli attack in retaliation for the drones and missiles fired by Tehran once morest Israel last Saturday.
The Iranian Fars news agency reported “three explosions” near the Shekari military base, Isfahan airport and the city of Qahjavarestan, in the center of the country.
Air defense shot down several drones, but did not detect a missile attack “for now,” said a spokesman for Iran’s space agency.
For his part, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi gave a speech this Friday in the northeast of the country, without mentioning the explosions that occurred hours before.
The Tasnim press agency, citing “informed sources”, denied for its part that the country had suffered an attack “from abroad.”
The event occurs amid an escalation of tensions between Iran and Israel, which promised to respond to a recent attack by Tehran once morest its territory, and once morest the backdrop of the war in Gaza.
American media such as CNN claimed, citing senior officials in their country, that Israel had launched an attack once morest Iranian territory and that it had notified Washington in advance. The explosions, these sources assured, respond to the Iranian aggression once morest Israeli territory last Saturday.
Following the reports, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who chaired a meeting of his G7 counterparts on the island of Capri, called for a “de-escalation.”
“The G7 wants a total de-escalation in a region under great tension,” he declared to his counterparts from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan.
Oman, which has long played a mediating role between Iran and Western powers, for its part condemned the “Israeli attack” once morest the Islamic Republic, and “Israel’s repeated military aggression in the region,” according to a ministry spokesperson. Of Foreign Affairs.
For his part, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned “any act of retaliation” in the Middle East. “It is time to stop the dangerous cycle of retaliation,” said Stéphane Dujarric in a press release, while Guterres had warned yesterday of the risk of a “generalized regional conflict.” Clarín.
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2024-04-24 08:59:50