WESTERN DIPLOMATS BELIEVE ISRAELI RESPONSE TO IRAN IS PROPORTIONATE, WON'T LEAD TO ESCALATION

Western Diplomats Believe Israeli Response to Iran Is Proportionate, Won't Lead to Escalation

Several diplomats say their countries held talks with Israel in recent days about their strike on Iran, in an attempt to prevent a flare-up. One diplomat said that danger is not behind us, 'but there is room for cautious optimism'

April 19th, 20PM April 19th, 20PM

On Friday, several senior Western diplomats said that their governments consider the Israeli strike on Iran to be a proportionate response to the 350 projectiles fired at Israeli territory on Saturday night. They also do not expect it to escalate the situation in the Middle East, and their countries had held talks with Israel over the past few days about its possible strike.

"We feel that Israel listened to our concerns and chose an action that the Iranians could live with," one diplomat told Haaretz a few hours after the initial reports of the strike. He added, "It's not yet possible to say with certainty that the danger is behind us, but there is room for cautious optimism."

Over the past week, a number of senior officials in pro-Israeli countries held talks with their Israeli counterparts, including a conversation between U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a telephone conversation between U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and visits to Israel by the British and German foreign ministers.

One top diplomat explained, "The message sent in all these talks was that even if Israel was convinced that it had to respond, it's necessary to think carefully about how the response will look. At the moment, it seems that this message has been well received."

No Western country has condemned the action attributed to Israel or made reservations about it, in contrast to the strong condemnations by the U.S., U.K., European Union and other countries of the Iranian missile and drone attack against Israel on Saturday night. Prominent Arab states also kept silent about the strike in Iran attributed to Israel.

The main hope now in the U.S., Europe, and Arab states that have relations with Israel is that Iran will consider Israel's fairly measured response as an end to the issue and will not choose to respond with another attack. Sunak said today, "Significant escalation is not in anyone's interest. What we want to see is calm heads prevail across the region."

In the past few days, European countries have taken steps to impose new economic sanctions against Iran in response to its attack. These measures will continue in the coming weeks.

Commenting on the strike, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said today that "the United States has not been involved in any offensive operations." Speaking at a G7 foreign ministers summit in Italy, Blinken clarified that Washington was committed to Israel's security and preventing escalation, and was working to lower tensions in the region. The conference host, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, said that the U.S. was "informed at the last moment" about the strike.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday that Russia forwarded to Israel a message from Iran stating that it was not interested in escalation. British daily The Telegraph quoted Lavrov as saying, "There have been telephone contacts between the leadership of Russia and Iran, our representatives and the Israelis. We made it very clear in these conversations, we told the Israelis that Iran does not want escalation."

2024-04-19T17:09:38Z dg43tfdfdgfd