Iran urges West to ‘appreciate restraint’ towards Israel

Tehran yesterday called on Western nations to “appreciate Iran’s restraint” towards Israel after it attacked its regional foe in response to a deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

“Instead of making accusations against Iran, [Western] countries should blame themselves and answer to public opinion for the measures they have taken against the ... war crimes committed by Israel” in its war against Tehran-backed Hamas in Gaza, said Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani.

Kanani added that Western countries “should appreciate Iran’s restraint in recent months”.

Western governments have condemned Iran over its unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel, which Tehran insists was an act of “self-defence”.

Iran’s first direct attack on Israel, which began last Saturday, was in response to a April 1 strike on Tehran’s consulate in Damascus which has been widely attributed to Israel.

The Damascus strike levelled the five-storey consular annexe of the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.

Iran said it had informed the United States and gave a 72-hour warning to neighbouring countries ahead of what it called its “limited” attack on Israel.

Kanani said Iran’s action was meant to “create a deterrent in the aim to prevent the repetition of the actions of the Zionist regime and to defend [Iranian] interests”.

The latest developments took place against the backdrop of the Gaza war, which began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel which killed 1170 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures. Tehran backs Hamas but has denied any direct involvement in the October 7 attack.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive against the Palestinian militant group has killed at least 33729 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. — AFP.