Israel has expressed its determination to respond to the unprecedented Iranian attack on Saturday, despite the fact that almost all of the 350 drones and missiles launched were intercepted with the help of the United States and other countries.
Tehran carried out this unprecedented attack in retaliation for the bombing of its consulate in Damascus, attributed to Israel, in which seven members of the Revolutionary Guards, its ideological army, were killed on April 1.
After the Iranian attack, cross-threats have multiplied, in a very tense regional context since the beginning in October of the Gaza war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, supported by Iran.
This Wednesday, the Foreign Ministers of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, and Germany, Annalena Baerbock, took advantage of their visit to Israel to ask for restraint.
“We hope” that Israel will react “in a way that contributes as little as possible to an escalation, and in a way that is both intelligent and tough,” declared Cameron, who together with Baerbock met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and his counterpart Israel. Katz.
The German minister indicated that she had come to speak with Israeli leaders about how to “avoid a new regional escalation.”
“The entire world must work decisively and defiantly against the threat of the Iranian regime, which seeks to undermine the stability of the entire region,” Herzog said in a statement published by his office.
Iran flexed its muscles this Wednesday by taking advantage of its armed forces’ day, which was the opportunity to parade soldiers, missiles and drones and for President Ebrahim Raisi to issue new warnings to Israel.
“If the Zionist regime committed the slightest aggression against our territory, the response would be fierce and severe,” he declared, addressing the military hierarchy after the parade, at a base near Tehran.
Stagnation in truce negotiations
Meanwhile, negotiations to achieve a new truce in Gaza, which would allow the release of Israeli hostages held captive in the Strip in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, are “stalled,” according to Qatar, which plays a mediating role along with the United States and Egypt. .
“We are in a delicate stage, with a certain stagnation, and we are doing our best to confront this stagnation,” Qatari Prime Minister Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said at a press conference.
Mediators hoped to reach a truce agreement before Ramadan, at the beginning of March, but the goal has been moving further away and hostilities continued throughout the entire Muslim fasting month, which ended last week.
New sanctions on Iran
The United States, Israel’s unfailing ally, quickly made it clear that it does not want a war with Iran nor will it participate in the Israeli response.
However, the White House announced that “in the coming days” it will impose new sanctions on Iran, including its drone and missile program, the Ministry of Defense and the Revolutionary Guard.
The EU is also considering expanding the scope of its sanctions, as declared on Tuesday by the head of community diplomacy, Josep Borrell.
Cameron expressed on British television his wish that the G7 countries, which meet in Italy this week, impose “coordinated sanctions” against Iran.
The conflict has strongly relaunched the debate on the need to create a Palestinian State.
The Security Council will vote on Thursday on the Palestinians’ request to become a full member state of the United Nations.
An initiative that will likely collide with the veto of the United States, which considers that the UN is not the ideal framework for such recognition, but rather an agreement with Israel.
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2024-04-18 09:09:07