Israel seeks to ‘expand war’ amid de-escalation push: Iran
Iran said on Thursday that Israel wants to spread war in the Middle East, as diplomatic efforts sought a regional de-escalation following the assassinations of the commanders of the resistance movements.
Ali Baqeri Kani, Iran’s acting foreign minister, said in an interview with AFP that the Israeli regime had committed “a strategic mistake” by assassinating Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31 — hours after the assassination in Beirut of Hezbollah’s military chief.
Israel seeks “to expand tension, war and conflict to other countries”, but has neither “the capacity nor the strength” to fight Iran, Baqeri Kani said.
Speaking at a military base on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Israel was “prepared both defensively and offensively” and “determined” to defend itself.
Hamas named a successor on Wednesday — Yahya Sinwar, who Israel says had a key role in planning Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack that sparked the nearly 11-month Gaza war.
On the ground in Gaza, fighting continued on Thursday, with the Israeli military issuing its latest evacuation order and rescuers and medics reporting at least 18 killed in strikes.
Israel has agreed to resume Gaza ceasefire talks on August 15 at the demand of US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators, Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday.
In a joint statement on Thursday, the three countries’ leaders invited the warring parties to resume talks on August 15 in Doha or Cairo “to close all remaining gaps and commence implementation of the deal without further delay.”
A framework agreement was “now on the table, with only the details of implementation” left to conclude, and the mediators were “prepared to present a final bridging proposal” to resolve remaining issues, they said.
Israel’s barbaric onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip has since October last year claimed nearly 40,000 innocent Palestinian lives, most of them women and children.