Keir Starmer Warns Iranian President Against Attacking Israel
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has called on Iran to “refrain” from an attack on Israel in a telephone call with Iran’s new president. Sir Keir told Masoud Pezeshkian there was a “serious risk of miscalculation, and now was the time for calm and careful consideration,” Downing Street said. This is the first call between a UK prime minister and an Iranian president since March 2021, when former British leader Boris Johnson called Hassan Rouhani.
News of that 30-minute discussion came as Britain issued a joint statement with the United States, France, Italy, and Germany – urging Iran to end its threats of an attack on Israel. They said it was time for Iran to “stand down its ongoing threats of a military attack against Israel and discuss the serious consequences for regional security should such an attack take place.
Leaders speaking jointly by phone also pledged their support for the “defense of Israel against Iranian aggression and against attacks by Iran-backed terrorist groups.” Fears of a broader conflict in the Middle East have increased after the recent killing of senior Hezbollah and Hamas leaders.
On Sunday, the United States confirmed that a guided missile submarine had been dispatched to the area amid such concerns. The submarine can carry 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles used for land-attack missions. It also ordered the already-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, delivering F-35C stealth fighter jets, to get there more quickly, speeding up the on-its-way transit of one ship tasked with replacing another in its region.
The US later said it shared Israel’s concerns that it was “increasingly likely that there will be an attack by Iran and its proxies and perhaps in the coming days,” said a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, John Kirby. That’s why we’ve been consistently engaged and having those conversations with our Israeli counterparts and other counterparts in the region, ” Mr Kirby said. Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesman, said the country viewed its enemies’ threats seriously and that “Israel is at peak preparedness for attack and defense.
Downing Street also said Keir Starmer had told Mr. Pezeshkian on Monday he was “deeply concerned by the situation in the region and called on all parties to de-escalate and avoid further regional confrontation.
Iran additionally blamed Israel for assassinating the land last month of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and vowed to punish it. Israel, which is currently waging a war aimed at destroying the group in Gaza, has not commented, but it is broadly believed to have been behind the killing.
Last week, acting Iranian Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian declared that the country would respond to the killing of Haniyeh at the “right time” and in a manner that was “appropriate.” The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a group of states with Muslim-majority populations, said it held Israel fully responsible for the attack, which it called “a serious infringement” of Iran’s sovereignty.
Ismail Haniyeh is not the only senior member of Hamas to be killed. Israel announced on Tuesday that the group’s military chief, Mohammed Deif, had been killed in an air strike in the Gaza Strip last month. The Iranian-backed Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah, which has battled Israel also, has said that it would exact revenge over the killing of one of its top commanders, Fuad Shukr.
On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told citizens to leave Lebanon as soon as possible, as the latest country leader to give an alert on the growing risks of tension. Meanwhile, airlines such as Lufthansa and EasyJet have, on their part, either canceled or suspended flights to the Middle East.
