Iran is prepared to de-escalate tensions with Israel provided that it agrees to stop further military moves against Tehran’s interests, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said at the United Nations.
“Iran’s legitimate defense and countermeasures have been concluded,” Amir-Abdollahian told the U.N. Security Council Thursday. Israel “must be compelled to stop any further military adventurism against our interests.” If not, he said, Iran will “give a decisive and proper response” that will make Israel “regret its actions.”
Amir-Abdollahian said that Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel over the weekend was “limited and minimal,” targeting only military bases. It was in response to an earlier Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate facility in Syria, he said. But Israeli officials have vowed to respond to the Iranian attack last weekend, even though the vast majority of incoming missiles and drones were stopped by Israel and allies including the U.S. and U.K.
Amir-Abdollahian joined foreign ministers from countries including Jordan, Brazil and Spain in a high-level debate on the Middle East hours before a planned Security Council vote on Palestine’s bid to become a full-fledged member of the U.N. Even if that measure draws support, the U.S. is expected to veto it.
Amir-Abdollahian’s first visit to New York since the escalation of tensions with Israel has stirred angst in the U.S., with a Republican lawmaker calling this week for the State Department to revoke his visa. Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the Iranian’s movements would be strictly limited and “I would not expect to see him, for example, snapping selfies on top of the Empire State Building.”
Earlier in the debate, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the council the Middle East “is on a knife edge,” saying that the region can only find lasting peace once there’s a resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
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