Iranian FM: US responsible for crisis in Gaza
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian blamed the United States for the escalation of crisis in the Gaza Strip due to its support for the Israeli regime.
“We really didn’t want this crisis to expand,” Amir-Abdollahian told CBS News, referencing Israel’s ongoing slaughter in Gaza. “But the US has been intensifying the war in Gaza by throwing its support behind Israel.”
Referring to Hamas’s October 7 operation in the occupied territories, the Iranian top diplomat said Hamas’s attacks were a response to 75 years of Israeli occupation.
“What Hamas did was based on its legitimate right to defend itself,” Amir-Abdollahian said.
He also denied that Iran was responsible for a recent drone attack in the Red Sea that appeared to be targeting a US missile destroyer.
The drone, which originated from Yemen, was shot down early Wednesday morning by the USS Thomas Hudner as it was “heading in the direction of the ship,” according to a statement from the Pentagon.
In a separate interview with the Financial Times, he revealed that Tehran told the US through back channels that it did not want the Israel-Hamas conflict to spread further, but also warned Washington that regional conflict could be unavoidable if Israeli attacks on Gaza continue.
“In response to the US,” he said, “we said that Iran does not want the war to spread, but due to the approach adopted by the US and Israel in the region, if the crimes against the people of Gaza and the West Bank are not stopped, any possibility could be considered, and a wider conflict could prove inevitable.”
“The war has already expanded in the region,” he added. “The fact that the Yemeni Army. . . attacks the occupied lands with missiles and drones means the war has begun to expand. The fact that [Lebanon’s resistance movement] Hezbollah is fighting with a third of the Israeli Army shows the war has expanded,” he said.
Amir-Abdollahian warned that the resistance groups in Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon “are not indifferent towards the killing of their Muslim and Arab peers in Palestine”.