Iran on Tuesday rejected calls from Western countries to drop threats against Israel, saying it would not seek “authorization” to retaliate against its arch-enemy, which it accuses of assassinating Palestinian Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil.
The White House said that if an Iranian attack were to occur, “it could certainly have an impact on the discussions” planned for Thursday on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where the war was triggered on October 7 by an attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Israeli territory.
US President Joe Biden and his counterparts from France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom called on Tehran on Monday evening to “renounce its threats of a military attack against Israel”.
“Such a demand, which lacks political logic, is totally contrary to the principles and rules of international law,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said on Tuesday.
Iran and its regional allies in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen have been threatening Israel with armed retaliation since the assassination on July 31 in the Iranian capital of the leader of Hamas, which they blamed on Israel, and the previous day of Fouad Shokr, the military leader of the pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah, killed in an Israeli strike near Beirut. The Israeli state has neither confirmed nor denied its responsibility for these attacks.
“The Islamic Republic is determined to defend its sovereignty” and “it does not seek permission from anyone to use its legitimate rights,” Kanani added.
“Series of attacks”
Washington, which has strengthened its military presence in the Middle East in recent days, has indicated that it is planning “a series of significant attacks” that could occur as early as “this week” by Iran and its allies.
The issue came up during a meeting Monday between President Joe Biden and the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Britain. All warned of the “grave consequences” of an attack on regional security.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer both called for de-escalation in telephone conversations with the Iranian president.
But “Iran will never give in to pressure, sanctions and coercion,” he said, according to Iran’s official news agency IRNA.
“The new momentum for a ceasefire offers Iran a way out of this cycle of escalation,” said Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, managing director of the Bourse&Bazaar Foundation think tank.
“No delay”
Meanwhile, international pressure is mounting for a truce in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli bombardments continue in the besieged Palestinian territory where the war has caused a humanitarian catastrophe and displaced almost all of its 2.4 million inhabitants.
“The managers Iran“People still feel compelled to retaliate against Israel, but they must do so in a way that does not derail the prospects” for a ceasefire, Batmanghelidj added.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom said on Monday that “there can be no further delay” in negotiating a ceasefire in the besieged territory.
The statements follow Hamas’s call on Sunday to implement the three-phase plan presented by Joe Biden at the end of May for a ceasefire in Gaza, “rather than conducting more negotiations or bringing new proposals.”
A few days ago, the mediating countries – Egypt, Qatar and the United States – had called for the resumption of talks on Thursday on a truce associated with the release of the hostages. Israel agreed, but Hamas has not clearly said whether it will participate.
On May 31, the American president announced a plan, presented as coming from Israel, providing, initially, for a six-week truce accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007 and which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union, after the attack on its soil killed 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
Of the 251 people kidnapped, 111 are still being held in Gaza, 39 of whom have died, according to the army, whose toll does not take into account statements Monday by Hamas’s armed wing that its fighters “killed a hostage.” His death, as well as the fact that “two female” hostages were injured, will be the subject of an “investigation,” according to the movement.
The Israeli retaliatory offensive in Gaza has left at least 39,897 dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run Gaza government’s health ministry.