221
UN chief tells emergency Security Council meeting Middle East is ‘on the brink’ as US warns Israel it will not take part in counterattack against Iran.
- Global powers have called for restraint to avoid further escalation after Iran’s unprecedented missile and drone attack on Israel. The United Nations chief, António Guterres, told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Sunday that the Middle East was “on the brink” and they could not afford more war. “The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict,” he said. “Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate.”
- President Joe Biden warned Israel the US would not take part in a counteroffensive against Iran after Sunday’s attack involving about 300 missiles and drones, almost all of which were intercepted. A senior Biden administration official said Washington aimed to de-escalate regional tensions. “We do not want a broader regional conflict.”
- Israel is weighing its response to the Iranian attack, signalling on Sunday night it will not immediately act alone against Tehran but insisting its forces remain on high alert and that the leadership has approved both “offensive and defensive action”. Benny Gantz, a member of the Israeli war cabinet, said ahead of it meeting that Israel would exact a price from Iran when the time was right.
- The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, held separate calls with his Jordanian, Saudi Arabian, Egyptian and Turkish counterparts and reiterated the US did not seek escalation, according to the US state department, while emphasising the US would continue to support Israel’s defence.
- The G7 said its leaders unequivocally condemned Iran’s strikes, the Islamic Republic’s first ever direct attack on the Jewish State and made in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, the Syrian capital, on April 01, that killed seven members of the Revolutionary Guards including two generals. “We express our full solidarity and support to Israel and its people and reaffirm our commitment towards its security,” the G7 leaders said in a statement.
- Global airlines faced disruptions to flights on Monday after Iran’s attack further narrowed options for planes navigating between Europe and Asia, causing chaos in the aviation industry. At least a dozen airlines had to cancel or reroute flights over the past two days, including Qantas, Lufthansa, United Airlines and Air India. It was the biggest single disruption to air travel since the attack on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001 according to Mark Zee, founder of OpsGroup, which monitors airspace and airports.
- At the UN, Iran’s envoy, Amir Saeid Iravani, said the country was exercising its “inherent right to self-defence” and “had no choice” but to act. Tehran warned earlier that it would strike again with greater force if Israel or the US retaliated.
- Israel’s UN envoy, Gilad Erdan, urged the council to “impose all possible sanctions on Iran before it’s too late” and to “condemn Iran for their terror”.
- The deputy US ambassador at the UN, Robert Wood, said Washington would explore additional, unspecified measures at the body to hold Iran accountable and warned against further aggression. – The Guardian
