IRAN FACING MORE SANCTIONS
Washington, EU pledge to ramp up sanctions following drone, missile attack on Israel
ISRAEL’S Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country reserved the right to protect itself after Iran’s unprecedented attack and that it alone would decide how to do so.
Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel over the weekend in an attack that caused little damage after most of the projectiles were intercepted.
The Israeli military has vowed to respond, prompting a diplomatic flurry aimed at calming the Middle East.
Israel’s allies in Washington and Brussels have pledged to ramp up sanctions against Iran, while British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock became the first Western envoys to visit Israel since the attack.
Netanyahu told the ministers that Israel “will reserve the right to protect itself”, his office said.
The pair offered “all kinds of suggestions and advice” during a meeting, he said. “However, I would also like to clarify, we will make our decisions ourselves.”
Cameron said: “We’re very anxious to avoid escalation and to say to our friends in Israel: It’s a time to think with head as well as heart.”
Baerbock emphasised that “the region must not slide into a situation whose outcome is completely unpredictable”.
Teheran has vowed to hit back if its arch-foe Israel responds to the Saturday attack, which was launched after a deadly strike on Iran’s Damascus consulate building earlier this month that was widely blamed on Israel.
Citing three unnamed Israeli sources, ABC News yesterday reported that “Israel prepared for and then aborted retaliatory strikes against Iran on at least two nights this past week”.
Among the range of possible reactions considered by the Israeli war cabinet were options to attack Iranian proxies in the region or to conduct a cyberattack, the sources told ABC.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi warned after the attack of “a fierce and severe response” to any retaliation.
On Wednesday, Teheran-backed Hizbollah wounded 14 soldiers, six seriously, in a strike on northern Israel, the Israeli army said.
EXPANDING SANCTIONS
Israel’s top ally the United States had made clear it would not join any attack on Iran, vowing instead to level more sanctions against the country’s missile and drone programme, its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian Defence Ministry.
On Wednesday, US Republicans unveiled a bill that would provide US$26 billion of military aid to Israel which appeared to have White House backing.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Brussels was also working to expand sanctions against Iran, including its supply of drones and weapons to Russia and proxy groups around the Middle East.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the EU and its allies had a “duty... to expand these sanctions”, while Baerbock said Berlin backed further sanctions.
Cameron urged the G7 to adopt “coordinated sanctions against Iran” ahead of a meeting with counterparts from the Westernled grouping in Italy.
GAZA DEAL TALKS STALLED
The Israel-Iran tensions have threatened to overshadow the Gaza war, even as deadly bombardment and combat raged in the besieged territory.
Talks for a truce and hostage release deal have stalled, said Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Abdulrahman Al-Thani, despite months of effort also involving US and Egyptian officials.
He said his country was undertaking “a complete reevaluation of its role because there has been damage to Qatar”, which does not have diplomatic ties with Israel.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military said its aircraft had “struck over 40 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” over the past day.
When one strike hit the southernmost city of Rafah, where 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering, Jamalat Ramidan said she “woke up to the sounds of girls shouting ‘mama, mama, mama’”.
As she fled the carnage with the children, they stumbled over “body parts and corpses scattered all over the place”, Ramidan said.
The war was triggered by an unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas on Oct 7 that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
The fighters also took about 250 hostages, of whom Israel estimates 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 who are presumed dead.
Israel’s devastating retaliatory offensive has killed at least 33,899 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the territory.
NETANYAHU DENIES FAMINE
Israel has faced growing opposition to the relentless fighting in Gaza, which the United Nations and aid agencies have warned has pushed the north of the territory to the brink of famine.
But Netanyahu rejected any claims about famine on Wednesday, saying Israel was doing “above and beyond” on the humanitarian issue, his office said.
The Israeli army said eight trucks of food aid from the World Food Programme that arrived via Ashdod port had entered Gaza through an Israeli land crossing.
It is the first time UN aid travelled through the port since Israel said it would open it this month after international pressure.