Iran warns Israel against ‘slightest’ response to attack
TEHRAN—President Ebrahim Raisi has warned Israel it will face a “painful response” if it takes the “slightest action” in response to Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile barrage at the weekend.
Iran’s first-ever direct attack on Israel, which began on Saturday, was in response to an April 1 air strike on Tehran’s consulate in Damascus which has been widely blamed on Israel.
The strike leveled the five-story consular annexe of the Iranian embassy and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.
“We firmly declare that the slightest action against Iran’s interests will definitely be met with a severe, extensive and painful response,” Raisi said in a call late Monday with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
Raisi reiterated that Iran was acting in “self-defense,” saying the operation targeted Israeli bases used to carry out the consulate strike, a statement from his office said.
He criticized the support of some Western government for Israel.
In Beijing, China’s foreign minister
held phone discussions with his Iranian counterpart, Beijing state media said Tuesday, reporting that Iran said it was “willing to exercise restraint” after its first-ever attack on Israel’s territory.
Israel has vowed to respond to the unprecedented Iranian missile and drone strikes over the weekend, which have prompted appeals for deescalation by world leaders fearing wider conflict.
China is a close partner of Iran, its largest trade partner, and a top buyer of its sanctioned oil.
The United States has repeatedly made public appeals for China to use its influence over Tehran to manage tensions in the region, which are currently turbocharged over the IsraelHamas conflict.
During the call, Hossein AmirAbdollahian briefed Wang Yi on the April 1 attack on a consular annex of the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus, which Tehran says prompted its aerial assault, Beijing’s state news agency Xinhua said.
Amir-Abdollahian told Wang that the United Nations Security Council “did not make a necessary response to this attack” and that “Iran has the right to self-defense in response to the violation of its sovereignty”, according to a readout.
Amir-Abdollahian said Iran was “willing to exercise restraint” and had no intention of further escalating tensions, adding the current regional situation was “very sensitive”.
Wang said China “strongly condemns and firmly opposes the attack” on the Iranian consular annex, Xinhua reported, and regards it as a “serious violation of international law and unacceptable”.
The readout said China noted Iran’s statement that, in response, it had taken limited action in “self-defence”.
“China appreciates Iran’s stress on not targeting regional and neighbouring countries as well as its reiteration on continuously pursuing a goodneighbourly and friendly policy,” Xinhua quoted Wang as saying.