UK urges Israel not to escalate situation in wake of Iran's attack

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) - Israel should not escalate the situation in the Middle East as Iran’s weekend attack was a 'double defeat,' the UK foreign secretary said Monday.

Speaking to Sky News, David Cameron said the attack was an “almost total failure,” and Iran has “revealed to the world that they are from malign influence in the region, prepared to do this.”

Cameron said: “So our hope is that there won't be a retaliatory response, and instead, the world's focus should shift to Hamas. They still hold those hostages. They've been offered a deal that prisoners can be released from Israeli jails in return for some of those hostages, and there'll be a pause in the fighting. That's what needs to happen next. And that's what I hope we can focus on.”

- UK’s support to Israel

Also reiterating the UK’s commitment to Israel’s safety, Cameron said the UK is “a supporter of Israel's right to self-defense.”

Cameron said the UK’s role in the military operations was providing airplanes to support US Airforce jets “so the Americans could do more over the skies of Israel.”

“But at the same time, we said that” if there are drones or missiles coming from that region into Israel, “we'll shoot them down.”

“And that's what our very skilled pilots did there.”

- Iran’s reaction

Asked about Iran’s right to retaliate against the Damascus embassy bombing on April 1, Cameron said he would argue that “there is a massive degree of difference between what Israel did in Damascus and … 301 weapons being launched by the State of Iran at the State of Israel for the first time a state on state attack 101 ballistic missiles, 36 cruise missiles, 185 drones, that is a degree of difference.”

“And I think a reckless and dangerous thing for Iran to have done.”

- Gaza

Cameron also spoke about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and said that “not letting more aid into Gaza was a mistake,” and the UK has told Israeli officials frankly that “they needed to open up the crossing points and use more trucks in the need to make sure there was proper deconfliction so that aid workers could get around Gaza.”

“And we wouldn't have further incidents like the terrible killing of the World Central Kitchen workers,” he added.