According to two diplomatic sources cited by Axios, Tehran is trying to prevent the war from expanding but if the military operation continues and Israel launches a ground offensive, Iran will have to respond.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has urged Israel to end its airstrikes on Gaza, warning that the conflict with Hamas could spread across the region if Israel sends ground forces into the enclave, and the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah is involved.
“I know about the scenarios that Hezbollah has put in place,” Amir-Abdollahian said in a briefing with reporters in Beirut on Saturday. “Any step the resistance will take will cause a huge earthquake for Israel.”
IRAN: Iranian FM Hossein Amir Abdollahian told Al Jazeera:
If stopping the aggression against Gaza does not succeed, the possibility of an expansion of the war front increases every hour.
(Israel) was informed that if its crimes in #Gaza do not stop, tomorrow will be too late. pic.twitter.com/bFxmkihdwu
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) October 15, 2023
According to two diplomatic sources cited by the US-based news website Axios, Iran is trying to prevent the war from expanding but if the military operation continues and Israel launches a ground offensive, Iran will have to respond.
“There is still a political opportunity to prevent a widespread crisis in the region,” the minister noted, but “maybe, in the next few hours, it will be too late.”
"For this vicious cycle to break, Palestine must, once more, become an issue that concerns all Arabs. The Israeli narrative must be countered, western bias confronted, and a new, collective strategy formed."
Latest editorial by @RamzyBaroud https://t.co/DUyIM4qEJ8 pic.twitter.com/2mUf1UHnQg
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) October 15, 2023
This week, the top Iranian diplomat visited Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, where he met with Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, as well as senior Lebanese officials, to discuss the “potential outcome” and the “positions that must be taken” in light of the war.
In a meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, Amir-Abdollahian accused Israel of “war crimes” against the people of Gaza and repeated his warning that if Israel does not stop, “any possibility is conceivable.” Bou Habib backed his counterpart, saying that Lebanon “has never wanted or sought war” and warning that further escalation “will ignite the region and threaten security and peace in it”.
Amir-Abdollahian also met with Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Doha on Saturday, “and agreed to “continue cooperation”, Hamas said in a statement.
(PC, RT)
