DUBAI, August 2. /TASS/. Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani in a phone conversation with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell demanded that the EU convince Israel to stop escalating things in the Middle East.
According to a statement from the Iranian Foreign Ministry, the diplomat stressed that, in accordance with its obligations on maintaining international peace and security, the European Union must put pressure on Israel in order "to prevent the continuation of crimes by this regime."
The top Iranian diplomat criticized "the move by some European countries alongside the US to prevent the condemnation of the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh by the top UN body." On July 31, an emergency session of the UN Security Council was held. Russia, which is chairing the UN Council, suggested to approve a statement for the media condemning the assassination of the Palestinian politician but the UK, the US and France blocked the document. Bagheri Kani stressed that "this action by those European countries and their silence regarding the Zionist regime's war-mongering in Yemen and Lebanon has emboldened Tel Aviv to continue its acts of aggression, which will lead to jeopardizing peace and stability in the region."
According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Borrell "expressed concern over the rising tension and the possibility of a full-fledged war in the region and its implications for regional nations," noting Iran’s "right to defend its territorial integrity and sovereignty."
On July 31, the Palestinian movement Hamas said that Haniyeh had been killed in an Israeli strike targeting the residence he was staying at in Tehran, where he had arrived for the inauguration of the country's president-elect, Masoud Pezeshkian. On July 30, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported delivering a strike on the Lebanese capital and eliminating Fuad Shukr. According to the IDF, he was a right-hand man of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah. On July 20, Israeli aircraft attacked the Yemeni city of Hodeidah on the Red Sea coast.