The European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell has described the situation in the Middle East as being “on the edge of the cliff”, and said he hoped any Israeli response to Iran’s attack would not lead to escalation.
At the weekend Tehran launched a barrage of drones and missiles at Israel in its first direct state-to-state attack on the country after years of being accused of waging a proxy war. Iran said the move was in retaliation for a strike early in April which destroyed its consulate in Damascus, which it blamed on Israel.
Reuters reports that speaking Spanish radio station Onda Cero, Borell said “We’re on the edge of the cliff and we have to move away from it. We have to step on the brakes and reverse gear.”
Highlighting what he said was a “profound division” within Israel’s governing coalition, he said there was a “more moderate and sensible” faction that favours retaliation in “a way that avoids a response to the response.”
Borrell said the EU needed to retain good relations with Iran, despite having imposed sanctions on it. “It’s in everyone’s interest that Iran does not become a nuclear power and that the Middle East is pacified,” he said. He spoke to Iran’s foreign minister on Sunday.
Israel’s war cabinet is expected to reconvene at 2pm local time, which is 11am GMT.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz is in Shanghai, and Reuters reports that while there he has warned Iran not to launch another attack on Israel, but said the Israeli government must also contribute to cooling tensions.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that two Palestinian men have been injured after being shot with live ammunition during an Israeli military incursion into the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus.
In the UK the Board of Deputies of British Jews has written to Rishi Sunak to thank the UK for its part on the defence of Israel at the weekend.
President Marie van der Zyl said:
I want to thank you for your unambiguous statement condemning the Iranian regime’s attack against Israel. I also understand that RAF jets were involved in the operation to shoot down the Iranian drones; our community is encouraged by the fact that our nation’s air force was part of this response.
It continued by saying that the government should resist pressure to suspend arms sales to Israel and called for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation.
In the UK, the prime minister is expected to address parliament about the situation this afternoon. Earlier today the UK foreign secretary urged Israel not to retaliate against Iran, saying the attack had represented a “double defeat” for Tehran, in that it failed to cause damage or casualties, and also exposed to the world what he described as the “malign” influence.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has said that Israel has released two ambulance crews today that it had been detaining for 50 days. It says six other crews are still detained and their whereabouts are unknown. The two crews had been detained at an Israeli military checkpoint in Khan Younis.
⭕️Israeli forces released two PRCS ambulance crews today morning after a 50-day detention. They were arrested at a military checkpoint in Khan Younis while evacuating patients from #AlAmalHospital. The Israeli occupation continued to detain six PRCS crews until now, and their… pic.twitter.com/6tlgnoUylx
Reuters reports that the European Union aviation safety agency said on Monday it continues to recommend caution in the airspaces of Iran and Israel, and also in a zone of about 100 nautical miles surrounding Israel.
UK foreign secretary Cameron appears to concede Iran had a right to respond to Israeli attack on Damascus consulate, but questions scale
In the UK, on Sky News, the UK’s foreign secretary David Cameron has been asked whether the UK would have retaliated if one of its diplomatic buildings had been flattened in another country, as Iran’s was in Syria. He appeared to concede that Iran had some right to respond to the destruction of its diplomatic building in Damascus, widely thought to have been carried out by Israel, but questioned the scale of Tehran’s response due to its potential to inflict civilian casualties.
Asked whether Israel had shown “good judgment” in attacking the Iranian consulate building in Syria and killing senior Iranian military commanders, the former UK prime minister said:
I can completely understand the frustration the Israelis feel when they look at the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and they look at the terrible things that they have done all over the world, including the support they give to Hamas, and of course, Hamas were responsible for the 7 October attack and that is where all of this begins. So you can completely understand the frustration.
Pressed on Iran’s frustration about “part of its sovereign territory being flattened” when the diplomatic building was attacked, Cameron continued:
I would argue there is a massive degree of difference between what Israel did in Damascus, and 301 weapons being launched by the state of Iran at the state of Israel, for the first time a state on state attack. 101 ballistic missiles, 36 cruise missiles, 185 drones, that is a degree of difference. And I think a reckless and dangerous thing for Iran to have done, and I think the whole world can see. All these countries that have somehow wondered, well, you know, what is the true nature of Iran? It’s there in black and white.
He was then asked “what would Britain do if a hostile nation flattened one of our consulates?” to which he replied “Well, we would take very strong action.”
It was then put to him that Iran would argue that is what it has just done. Cameron responded “Well what they did, as I’ve said, was a massive attack.”
“So they were right to respond, but they over-reacted, is that what you are saying?” he was then asked. The UK’s foreign secretary then said:
What I’m saying is the attack they carried out was on a very large scale. Countries have a right to respond when they feel they’ve suffered an aggression, of course they do. But look at the scale of that response. Had those weapons not been shot down. There could have been thousands of casualties, including civilian casualties. I think that’s a really important point to take into account.
So far, since 7 October, the casualty count, which includes civilians, has included about 1,140 people killed in the initial Hamas attack in southern Israel, during which about 240 people were taken captive as hostages, and over 33,000 people reported killed inside the Gaza Strip by Israel’s military action there.
UK foreign secretary Cameron: 'reckless and dangerous' attack on Israel was a 'double defeat' for Iran
Describing it as “a reckless and dangerous thing for Iran to have done”, the UK’s foreign secretary David Cameron said that Tehran’s attack was a “double defeat”, as it had failed to inflict damage on Israel, and that “they’ve revealed to the world that they are the malign influence in the region.”
On Sky News in the UK he stressed how large the attack had been, specifying that it had featured “301 weapons – 110 ballistic missiles and 40 cruise missiles. This was very significant.”
He said “if you’re sitting in Israel this morning, you’re thinking quite rightly, we have every right to respond to this, and they do, but we are urging that they shouldn’t escalate.”
He continued “our hope is that there won’t be a retaliatory response, and instead, the world’s focus should shift to Hamas. They still hold those hostages. They’ve been offered a deal that prisoners can be released from Israeli jails in return for some of those hostages, and there’ll be a pause in the fighting. That’s what needs to happen next.
“I think the smart thing to do is actually to recognise that Iran’s attack was a failure. And we want to keep the focus on that, on Iran’s malign influence, and actually pivot to looking at what’s happening in Gaza, and getting those hostages released.”
UK foreign secretary Cameron: situation in Gaza remains 'unacceptable'
The UK’s foreign secretary has questioned Benjamin Netanyahu’s judgment on the level of aid being allowed to enter Gaza, and said that he has had “tough conversations” with Israel on the topic.
Saying that he had “many arguments and disagreements” with Israel’s prime minister over the 20 years they have known each other, the former UK prime minister David Cameron said:
It’s our job to work with the Israeli government to support them in their campaign to get rid of Hamas, and I think that’s right. You can’t expect Israel to live next door to a territory that is governed by people that carried out the 7 October attacks, but our job is to work with Israeli Government.
We will have our disagreements. We have some very tough conversations with them, for instance, about the need to get aid into Gaza, where I’ve been extremely tough with them about that, but I think rightly because the situation in Gaza is unacceptable.
There are too many people going hungry. There are too many people that can’t get water and medicine. The Israelis have now said [there will be] 500 trucks a day, opening the port of Ashdod, getting more aid in, and that’s that’s hugely helpful, and we need to make sure that’s delivered.
Pressed specifically on where Netanyahu had shown bad judgment, Cameron said:
We have to work with the prime ministers and the governments that are there. He has good judgment on many things, but there are times that we prefer to disagree. When we do, we should have frank conversations. That’s what friends do.
I think not letting more aid into Gaza. That I think was a mistake. We were very frank with the Israelis all the way through that they needed to open up the crossing points. There [needs to be] a lot more trucks, the need to make sure there was proper deconfliction, so that aid workers can get around Gaza. And we wouldn’t have you know, further incidents like the terrible killing of the World Central Kitchen workers. I think it was a bad judgment not to open up Gaza to aid earlier. And we had that argument with him.
