‘Serious escalation’: World reacts to Iran’s strikes on Israel
Countries around the world condemned Iran’s strikes on Israel late Saturday, warning the attack threatened to further destabilise the Middle East.
US President Joe Biden promised “ironclad” support for Israel after holding an urgent meeting with top security officials.
“I just met with my national security team for an update on Iran’s attacks against Israel. Our commitment to Israel’s security against threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad,” Biden said on X, formerly Twitter, posting a picture of the meeting in the White House Situation Room.
Qatar expressed “deep concern” following the strikes and called on “all parties to halt escalation” and “exercise maximum restraint”. The gasrich emirate, which has been
engaged in weeks of talks with Israel and Hamas and mediated a hostage exchange between Tehran and Washinton in September urged the international community to “take urgent action to defuse the tension and de-escalate.”
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemned the “reckless” strikes, which he said “risk inflaming tensions and destabilising the region. Iran has once again demonstrated that it is intent on sowing chaos in its own backyard.”
The European Union’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said the strikes were “an unprecedented escalation and a grave threat to regional security” in a message on X.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned “the serious escalation represented by the large-scale attack launched on Israel by the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
“I am deeply alarmed about the very real danger of a devastating region-wide escalation,” he added, calling on parties to “avoid any action that could lead to major military confrontations on multiple fronts in the Middle East”.
Cairo’s foreign ministry expressed its “deep concern” at the escalation of hostilities and called for “maximum restraint”.
The ministry’s statement also warned of the “risk of the regional expansion of the conflict”, and added that Egypt would be “in direct contact with all parties to the conflict to try and contain the situation”.
The Saudi foreign ministry voiced its concern at the “military escalation” and called on “all parties to exercise utmost restraint and spare the region and its peoples from the dangers of war”.