UN chief calls for ‘urgent de-escalation’
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is calling for “urgent de-escalation” of hostilities in the Middle East.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday that Guterres made the comments during a phone conversation with Iran’s foreign minister following Tehran’s weekend attack on Israel. Dujarric said Guterres spoke to Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Monday.
During an emergency security council meeting on Sunday, Guterres warned that “the Middle East is on the brink” and it’s time to step back.
World leaders have urged Israel not to retaliate after Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles over the weekend in an unprecedented mission that pushed the Middle East closer to a regionwide war. The attack happened less than two weeks after a suspected Israeli strike in Syria killed two Iranian generals in an Iranian consular building.
Tensions in the region have increased since the start of the latest Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, when Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. Israel responded with an offensive in Gaza that has caused widespread devastation and killed more than 33,800 people, according to local health officials.
The U.S. will impose new sanctions on Iran after Tehran launched its first direct aerial assault on Israel on Saturday, said National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
Sullivan said in a statement that the sanctions will target Iran’s missile and drone programs, as well as groups backing the country’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and its defence ministry. The U.S. said that it anticipates other Group of Seven allies adding their own sanctions.
“These new sanctions and other measures will continue a steady drumbeat of pressure to contain and degrade Iran’s military capacity and effectiveness and confront the full range of its problematic behaviours,” Sullivan said.
Italy’s defence minister said Tuesday that Iran “crossed a precise red line” with its direct attack on Israel, but is calling on Israel to avoid fuelling a spiral of violence in the region.
Defence Minister Guido Crosetto spoke by telephone with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. He expressed Italy’s continued friendship with Israel, according to a ministry statement.
According to the statement, Crosetto told Gallant “the crossing of a precise red line with the direct attack on Israel, on its territory, is worrying but it is precisely now that we need to be mature and act according to the rules of international law to avoid fuelling the spiral of violence that would see us all defeated.”
On Tuesday, the Israeli military displayed one of the Iranian ballistic missiles that was intercepted over the weekend. Israel says Iran launched more than 300 missiles and attack drones in the barrage.
Iran said the attack was a response to an alleged Israeli airstrike that killed two Iranian generals in Syria on April 1.
Showing reporters the remnants of one of the missiles at an army base in southern Israel on Tuesday, military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said each warhead carried 500 kilograms of explosives.
Elsewhere, the United Nations is appealing for $2.8 billion (U.S.) to provide desperately needed aid to three million Palestinians, stressing that tackling looming famine in war-torn Gaza doesn’t only require food but sanitation, water and health facilities.
Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN humanitarian office for Gaza and the West Bank, told reporters Tuesday that “massive operations” are required to restore those services and meet minimum standards.