TEL AVIV, August 16. /TASS/. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has met with his British and French counterparts, David Lammy and Stephane Sejourne, in Jerusalem, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"Foreign Minister Katz made it clear to the foreign ministers of France and the United Kingdom that Israel expected France and the UK to publicly state to Iran that it is prohibited to attack Israel and that if Iran carries out an attack, the US-led coalition will join not only Israel’s defense efforts but also its retaliatory strike on important targets in Iran," the statement reads.

According to Katz, "Iran must understand that if it fails to stop its direct aggression by way of the war that it has been waging against Israel through its proxies, it will have to pay a high price in the strategic and economic fields, and that this is the only chance to prevent an all-out war." The top Israeli diplomat warned that his country would not be able to refrain from giving a resolute response to any attack.

Tensions in the Middle East flared up again after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and the killing of Fuad Shukr, a top commander of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah movement, in Beirut. Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah blamed the killings on Israel, vowing to take revenge. The Israeli authorities did not comment on Haniyeh’s death, while calling Shukr’s assassination a response to an attack on the Druze town of Majdal Shams on the Golan Heights, which had killed 12 people. Hezbollah denies involvement in the incident.