UN Security Council countries on Wednesday called for stepped-up diplomatic efforts to prevent a wider conflict in the Middle East, after the killings of two militant leaders raised tensions.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in the Iranian capital early on Wednesday, sparking threats of revenge against Israel and fueling concerns that the Gaza conflict could escalate into a wider war in the region.
The killing came less than 24 hours after Hezbollah’s top military commander was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut in retaliation for a deadly rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
“We fear that the region is on the brink of all-out war,” Shino Mitsuko, Japan’s deputy representative to the UN, said Wednesday, urging the international community to make efforts to prevent such a conflict.
China, Russia, Algeria and other countries condemned Haniyeh’s killing, which Iran’s UN ambassador called an act of terrorism, while the United States, Britain and France denounced what they called Iran’s support for destabilizing actors in the region.
China’s UN ambassador, Fu Cong, said the failure to reach a ceasefire in Gaza was responsible for worsening tensions.
“Countries with greater influence must exert more pressure and work more vigorously to extinguish the flames of war in Gaza,” he said.
Iran’s UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, said Tehran had consistently exercised maximum restraint but reserved the right to respond forcefully. He called on the Security Council to condemn Israel and punish it with sanctions.
Israel’s deputy representative to the UN, Jonathan Miller, called on the Security Council to condemn Iran for supporting regional terrorism and to increase sanctions against the Islamic republic. “We will defend ourselves and respond with great force against those who harm us,” he said.
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– 2024-08-09 15:44:58
