Israel wants Iran sanctioned as world warns vs escalation
JERUSALEM – World powers urged restraint on April 14 for fear that Iran’s unprecedented missile and drone strikes on Israel could spark a wider war in the Middle East, as the United Nations heard a call for new sanctions against Tehran.
Iran launched the attack, its first ever to directly target Israeli territory, in retaliation for a deadly air strike widely blamed on Israel that destroyed Tehran’s consular building in Syria’s capital in early April.
The strikes raised Middle East tensions to a dangerous new level six months into a deadly conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, prompting international cries of alarm.
“Neither the region nor the world can afford more war,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the body’s Security Council as it met to discuss April 13’s Iranian attack.
“The Middle East is on the brink,” he warned. “The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict. Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate.”
Israel’s UN envoy Gilad Erdan urged the Council to “impose all possible sanctions on Iran before it’s too late” and “condemn Iran for their terror.”
G7 leaders earlier said they were ready to “take further measures” in response to “destabilizing initiatives.”
Iran’s UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani retorted that the Islamic republic was exercising its “inherent right to self-defense” and “had no choice” but to act. He insisted his country did “not seek escalation or war,” but would respond to any “threat or aggression.”
Through the night of April 13, air raid sirens wailed and Israelis sought cover in bunkers and shelters as missile defense systems and warplanes intercepted drones and missiles.
Israel and its allies intercepted the vast majority of the more than 300 incoming projectiles, the Israeli army said, reporting 12 people injured and no deaths, but the attack sharply heightened fears of an Israeli counterstrike.
“Together we thwarted Iran’s attack,” Israeli military spokesman Rear-Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement. “This was the first time that such a coalition worked together against the threat of Iran and its proxies in the Middle East.”
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