G7 releases statement condemning Iran retaliatory attacks on Israel – as it happened

Here is where the day stands:

• The Israel Defense Forces announced that it intercepted a UAV that approached Israel earlier this evening. In a post on X, the IDF wrote: “A Sa’ar 6-class corvette successfully intercepted a UAV that approached Israeli territory from the southeast using the ‘C-Dome’ Defense System earlier this evening.”

• UN chief António Guterres called for maximum restraint on Sunday following Iran’s retaliatory attacks on Israel, Reuters reports. In a UN security council meeting, Guterres said: “The Middle East is on the brink. The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict. Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate.”

• Jordan’s prime minister Bisher Khasawneh said that escalation in the region would lead to “dangerous paths,” Reuters reports. Speaking to the Jordanian cabinet, Khasawneh said. “The army will respond to anything that will jeopardise the security and safety of the kingdom and the sanctity of its airspace and territory in the face of any danger from any party with all the available means.”

• The G7 has released the following statement on Iran’s retaliatory attacks on Israel: “We, the leaders of the G7, unequivocally condemn in the strongest terms Iran’s direct and unprecedented attack against Israel… We express our full solidarity and support to Israel and its people and reaffirm our commitment towards its security.”

• Jordan has summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest against Iran’s comments which were regarded by Jordan as an inteference in the kingdom’s internal affairs, Reuters reports. Speaking to Jordan’s state-owned Mamlaka news outlet, Safadi referred to comments made by Iranian official media which warned that Jordan would be the next target in the event it cooperated with Israel in a showdown with Iran.

• A senior Joe Biden administration official has told reporters on Sunday: “We are committed to defending Israel. We would not be a part of any response they do. This is a very consistent policy.” “Our aim is to deescalate regional tensions. We do not want a broader regional conflict. Our focus has been to contain this crisis,” the official added.

• Iran’s action against Israel was a “legitimate act of self-defence,” Syria’s foreign minister Faisal Mekdad told his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a phone call on Sunday. Syrian state media SANA further reports: “It is a legitimate right to self-defense against this racist Zionist entity, which does not respect international law and will, nor the Charter of the United Nations.”

• US air carrier United Airlines has canceled Sunday’s planned flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Tel Aviv following rising regional tensions, Reuters reports. The flight was set to take off from Newark at 3:20pm local time and land in Tel Aviv at 8:55am local time.

The Israel Defense Forces announced that it intercepted a UAV that approached Israel earlier this evening.

In a post on X, the IDF wrote:

“A Sa’ar 6-class corvette successfully intercepted a UAV that approached Israeli territory from the southeast using the ‘C-Dome’ Defense System earlier this evening.’

UN chief António Guterres called for maximum restraint on Sunday following Iran’s retaliatory attacks on Israel, Reuters reports.

In a UN security council meeting, Guterres said:

“The Middle East is on the brink. The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict. Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate.”

Earlier this month, Israel killed a top Iranian commander, among other members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, in a strike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus.

View image in fullscreen

Jordan’s prime minister Bisher Khasawneh said that escalation in the region would lead to “dangerous paths,” Reuters reports.

Speaking to the Jordanian cabinet, Khasawneh said:

“There is need for all parties to act responsibly and exercise utmost degree of self restraint... and not be dragged towards any escalation that will no doubt have dangerous consequences…

The army will respond to anything that will jeopardise the security and safety of the kingdom and the sanctity of its airspace and territory in the face of any danger from any party with all the available means.”

In a phone call with US president Joe Biden on Sunday, Jordan’s King Abdullah also said that Jordan “won’t be an arena for a regional war” and said that any “escalation by Israel would only widen the circle of conflict.”

With the world focused on the ongoing tensions between Israel and Iran, Palestinians continue to face attacks by Israeli forces across the Gaza Strip.

In a series of posts on X, the Palestine Red Crescent Society showed its teams treating Palestinians injured by Israeli attacks in recent days:

Since last October, Israeli forces have killed over 33,600 Palestinians while displacing over 2 million survivors across the strip amid a widespread man-made famine as a result of Israeli aid restrictions.

Iran’s action against Israel was a “legitimate act of self-defence,” Syria’s foreign minister Faisal Mekdad told his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a phone call on Sunday.

Syrian state media SANA further reports:

It is a legitimate right to self-defense against this racist Zionist entity, which does not respect international law and will, nor the Charter of the United Nations.

Mikdad denounced the negligent Western positions in the face of the massacres and inhuman actions of the Israeli entity.”

Iran’s retaliatory attacks on Israel comes two weeks after Israel killed a top Iranian commander in an attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria.

14 Apr 202410.44 EDT

Bolivia's president warns of possible 'third world war' after Iran's attack on Israel

Tom Phillips

Latin American leaders and governments have voiced disquiet and apprehension over the Iranian strike on Israel and its potential consequences, with Bolivia’s president warning of a possible “third world war”.

“War is the worst way to resolve international conflicts … there are no winners in war, everyone loses, and the escalation of violence worldwide puts humanity at risk of disappearing,” the Bolivian leader Luis Arce tweeted, urging the UN secretary general to call an emergency meeting “to prevent this conflict escalating into a third world war”.

Mexico’s left-wing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, also expressed fear the conflict could spread. “War is irrational, [a] synonym for suffering and death; it benefits no one, not even warmongering magnates and governors. Let’s support peace and universal brotherhood,” López Obrador tweeted.

Argentina’s right-wing president, Javier Milei, offered his “emphatic” support for Israel’s right to defend its sovereignty, “in particular against regimes which promote terror and seek to destroy western civilization”.

Brazil’s foreign ministry expressed “serious concern” over Iran’s drone and missile attacks and urged its citizens to avoid non-essential visits to the region.

“Brazil calls on all involved parties to exercise maximum restraint and urges the international community to marshal efforts towards avoiding an escalation,” it said in a statement.

Chile’s foreign ministry expressed “deep concern” over the attacks and the “serious escalation of tensions” in the region.

Iran’s main Latin American ally, Venezuela, did not condemn the attacks. In a statement, its foreign ministry blamed “the [worsening] situation of instability” in the region on the “genocide in Palestine and the irrationality of the Israeli regime, as well as the inaction of the United Nations”.

Colombia’s leftist president Gustavo Petro, a fierce critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, tweeted: “Israeli children will only sleep in peace when Palestinian children sleep in peace”.

• Tehran has warned it will strike again with greater force if Israel or the US retaliate for the Iranian strike on Israel by more 300 drones and missiles on Saturday night. The air raids, the Islamic Republic’s first ever direct attack on the Israeli state, brought a years-long shadow war into the open and threatened to draw the region into a broader conflagration as Israel said it was considering its response.

• However, the attack, mostly launched from inside Iran, caused only modest damage in Israel as most of the drones were shot down with the help of the US, Britain and Jordan. An air force base in southern Israel was hit, but continued to operate as normal and a seven-year-old child was seriously hurt by shrapnel. Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said that 99% of the launches had been intercepted.

• Most of the Iranian drones flying over Syria’s airspace during Tehran’s strikes overnight were downed by Israeli and US jets before reaching their targets in Israel, two western intelligence sources told Reuters.

• Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet, said that Israel will exact a price from Iran in response to its mass missile and drone attack when the time is right. His comments came ahead of a war cabinet meeting alongside Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the country’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

• The UN security council will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday, at the request of Israel’s ambassador to the UN, the council’s president said in a statement to media.

• Iran informed Turkey in advance of its planned operation against Israel, a Turkish diplomatic source has told Reuters. The source also said that the US conveyed to Iran via Ankara that its operation must be “within certain limits”. These reports come after Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, said in a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Tehran that Iran had informed the US that its attacks against Israel will be “limited” and for self-defence only.

• John Kirby, the White House’s top national security spokesperson, told ABC’s This Week programme on Sunday that the US will continue to help Israel defend itself, but does not want war with Iran. “We don’t seek escalated tensions in the region. We don’t seek a wider conflict,” Kirby said. News outlet Axios reported that Joe Biden, the US president, had told Netanyahu that he would oppose an Israeli counterattack against Iran and that the prime minister should “take the win”.

• Jordan’s prime minister, Bisher Khasawneh, warned that any escalation in the region would lead to “dangerous paths”. Countries including the UK, Spain, the US, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and China, have called for restraint amid fears of a regional escalation of conflict across the Middle East. Iran’s foreign ministry has summoned the ambassadors of the UK, France, and Germany to question what it referred to as their “irresponsible stance” regarding Tehran’s retaliatory strikes on Israel, the semi-official Iranian Labour news agency reported.

• Major airlines across the Middle East, including Emirates Airlines and Qatar Airways, announced they would resume some of their operations in the region after cancelling or rerouting some flights in response to Iran’s attack on Israel. Israel said it had reopened its airspace as of 7:30am local time on Sunday morning, with Beirut airport also reopening this morning. Several Iranian airports, including Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International, however, have cancelled flights until Monday.

News outlet Axios has reported that Joe Biden, the US president, had told Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that he would oppose an Israeli counterattack against Iran and that the prime minister should “take the win”.

The White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, did not deny that Biden had warned Netanyahu that the US would not take part in any Israeli counter-strike against Iranian territory when he was asked earlier.

He told CNN:

The president wanted to congratulate prime minister Netanyahu for an incredible military achievement. The prime minister was very grateful for the support that President Biden offered and demonstrated in supporting Israel, and the President made it clear that the self-defence of Israel is something we take seriously and we will continue to take that seriously.

Iran informed Turkey in advance of its planned operation against Israel, a Turkish diplomatic source has told Reuters.

The source also said that the US conveyed to Iran via Ankara that its operation must be “within certain limits”.

These reports come after Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, said in a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Tehran that Iran had informed the US that its attacks against Israel will be “limited” and for self-defence only.

John Kirby, the White House’s top national security spokesperson, told ABC’s This Week programme on Sunday that the US will continue to help Israel defend itself, but does not want war with Iran.

“We don’t seek escalated tensions in the region. We don’t seek a wider conflict,” Kirby said.

Israel will exact a price from Iran in response to its mass missile and drone attack when the time is right, war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has said.

“We will build a regional coalition and exact the price from Iran in the fashion and timing that is right for us,” Gantz said in a statement as the Israeli war cabinet was due to convene to discuss Israel’s response to Iran’s attack.

Israel’s war cabinet, made up of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and Gantz, was due to meet at 3.30pm (12.30 GMT) to discuss a response to the attack.

The Iranian government earlier hailed its unprecedented direct strike on Israel as a success and said that as far as it was concerned the military operation was now over, saying it had struck most of the military targets it had intended as a reprisal for the Israeli assault on Iran’s consulate in Damascus on 1 April.

An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said 99% of the more than 300 missiles and drones were intercepted from Iran’s attack on Saturday.

Major airlines across the Middle East announced they would resume operations in the region after cancelling or rerouting some flights as Iran launched its attack on Israel on Saturday evening.

Emirates Airlines, which had cancelled some of its fights and rerouted others due to temporary airspace closures in the region, was resuming scheduled operations to and from Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq from Sunday afternoon, a spokesperson said.

Qatar Airways also resumed services to Amman, Beirut and Baghdad, it said in a post on X, while Etihad Airways was planning to operate scheduled passenger and cargo services between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv, Amman and Beirut starting from Monday.

Etihad warned that as services return to normal after the temporary closure of airspace across parts of the Middle East, “there may still be a risk of some knock-on disruption across Monday 15”.

“Some of our flights have been affected by the temporary closure of a number of airspaces in the region,” a statement from the United Arab Emirates’ Fly Dubai was quoted on state news agency WAM as saying.

Several Iranian airports, including Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International, have cancelled flights until Monday, Iranian state media reported on Sunday (see post at 11:05 for more details).

Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said Iran’s overnight attack on Israel had taken the Middle East to the “edge of a precipice” and called for restraint.

She said Tehran had “plunged an entire region into chaos” and the spiralling tensions needed to end, AP reports.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz denounced a “grave escalation” and underlined Berlin’s “solidarity” with Israel.

He told reporters during a visit to China that “we cannot but call on everyone, in particular Iran, to not continue along this path.”

Iran informed the US that its attacks against Israel will be “limited” and for self-defence, Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, said in a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Tehran on Sunday.

Israel said Iran launched 170 drones, more than 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles early on Sunday in an attack that set off air raid sirens across the country (see earlier post at 11:53 for more details).

The assault was launched in response to a strike widely blamed on Israel on an Iranian consular building in Syria at the start of April which killed two Iranian generals.

It marks the first time a direct military assault has been launched by Tehran on Israel despite enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

RAF jets shot down “a number of” attack drones after Iran launched its attack on Israel, the UK’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has confirmed.

Sunak is set to join other G7 leaders on a call on Sunday amid fears of further escalation in the event of a possible Israeli counter-strike.

Speaking to journalists in Downing Street, he said if Iran’s attack on Israel been successful “the fallout for regional stability would be hard to overstate”, as he confirmed RAF pilots shot down “a number of” drones.

Sunak called Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel a “dangerous and unnecessary escalation”, which he says he condemns in the “strongest terms”.

He concluded by urging “calm heads to prevail” and said he would be working with allies to “de-escalate the situation”.

Britain has offered staunch support for Israel, with the UK’s Ministry of Defence saying RAF warplanes in Iraq and Syria had been deployed to intercept “any airborne attacks within range of our existing missions”.

• Tehran has warned it will strike again with greater force if Israel or the US retaliate for the Iranian strike on Israel by more 300 drones and missiles on Saturday night. The air raids, the Islamic Republic’s first ever direct attack on the Israeli state, brought a years-long shadow war into the open and threatened to draw the region into a broader conflagration as Israel said it was considering its response.

• Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said that 99% of the launches had been intercepted, declaring that “the Iranian attack was foiled”. While 170 drones and 30 cruise missiles were shot down before they reached Israel, a few of the 110 ballistic missiles did get through, the Israeli army said, with 12 people suffering injuries. Among the injured was a young girl near the southern Israeli town of Arad who was in intensive care, according to the medical centre that received her.

• Most of the Iranian drones flying over Syria’s airspace during Tehran’s strikes overnight were downed by Israeli and US jets before reaching their targets in Israel, two western intelligence sources told Reuters. The Jordanian air force also intercepted some of the projectiles over its territory, and the UK’s Royal Air Force said it was contributing fighters and refuelling planes, mostly to fill in for the US in conducting aerial patrols over Iraq and Syria as part of its campaign against the so-called Islamic State.

• As of Sunday morning, Israeli officials indicated no decision had been made about a response to the Iranian attack, as an official said any potential response would be discussed at the war cabinet meeting. Israel’s war cabinet, comprising Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and Benny Gantz, is due to meet at 3:30pm (1230 GMT) to discuss a response to the attack.

• The UN security council will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday, at the request of Israel’s ambassador to the UN, the council’s president said in a statement to media.

• Jordan’s prime minister, Bisher Khasawneh, warned that any escalation in the region would lead to “dangerous paths”. Other countries including the UK, Spain, the US, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and China, have called for restraint amid fears of a regional escalation of conflict across the Middle East. Iran’s foreign ministry has summoned the ambassadors of the UK, France, and Germany to question what it referred to as their “irresponsible stance” regarding Tehran’s retaliatory strikes on Israel, the semi-official Iranian Labour news agency reported.

• Several Iranian airports, including Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International, have cancelled flights until Monday, Iranian state media reported on Sunday. Domestic flights from Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport and airports in Shiraz, Isfahan, Bushehr, Kerman, Ilam, and Sanandaj have also been cancelled until Monday morning, according to Iran’s Airports and Air Navigation Company. Israel, however, said it had reopened its airspace as of 7:30am local time on Sunday morning, with Beirut airport also reopening this morning.

• A growing chorus of US congressional leaders are calling for the supplemental aid bill to be passed, with US Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer saying it was the clearest way to help Israel. The $95bn supplemental spending bill includes $14bn for Israel, in addition to $60bn for Ukraine and support for Taiwan. It was passed by the Senate with 70% support in February but has been blocked in the House.

Iran’s foreign ministry has summoned the ambassadors of the UK, France, and Germany to question what it referred to as their “irresponsible stance” regarding Tehran’s retaliatory strikes on Israel, the semi-official Iranian Labour news agency reported.

Israel, with the help of key western allies, including the UK, claimed to have intercepted 99% of the launches during the Iranian mass strike on Saturday.

UK, Germany and France have been among the western countries which have condemned the drone and missile strike on Israel and has called for restraint.

We have not heard any response from the respective ambassadors.

The director for western Europe at Iran’s foreign ministry accused the three countries of “double standards” as they opposed earlier this month a Russian-drafted UN security council statement that would have condemned Israel’s attack on Iran’s embassy compound in Syria.

Several Iranian airports, including Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International, have cancelled flights until Monday, Iranian state media reported on Sunday.

“All flights from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport have been cancelled until 6 a.m. (0230 GMT) following an announcement by Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation,” the airport’s executive told the Iranian Student news agency.

Domestic flights from Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport and airports in Shiraz, Isfahan, Bushehr, Kerman, Ilam, and Sanandaj have also been cancelled until Monday morning, according to Iran’s Airports and Air Navigation Company, as the country’s western airspace remains off limits to flights.

Major airlines across the Middle East have announced the cancellation of some of their flights, while having to reroute others, though Israel reopened its airspace as of 7:30am local time on Sunday morning.

Beirut airport also reopened this morning and flights in and out of the Lebanese capital have reportedly resumed.

Tehran has warned it will strike again with greater force if Israel or the US retaliate for the Iranian strike on Israel by more 300 drones and missiles on Saturday night.

Jordan’s prime minister, Bisher Khasawneh, has warned that any escalation in the region would lead to “dangerous paths” after Iran launched hundreds of drones as well as cruise missiles towards Israel.

In remarks to the cabinet, Khasawneh said the country’s armed forces would confront any attempt by any party that sought to endanger the kingdom’s security.

Jordan, a staunch US ally, intercepted some flying objects that entered its airspace on Saturday night to ensure the safety of its citizens, a cabinet statement said on Sunday.

Jordan, which lies between Iran and Israel, had readied air defences to intercept any drones or missiles that violated its territory, two regional security sources told Reuters.