EU urges ‘maximum restraint’ as Middle East edges closer to full-scale war

3 months ago 20

The European Commission has called on all parties in the Middle East to “exert maximum restraint” amid growing fears of a full-scale regional war following the assassination of a top Hamas official in Iran on Wednesday morning (31 July).

“We are following closely reports about the assassination of Hamas’ political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last night,” the European Commission spokesperson for foreign affairs Peter Stano told Euractiv.

“We call on all parties to exert maximum restraint and avoid any further escalation. No country and no nation stand to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East.”

Stano’s comments were echoed by Germany’s foreign ministry.

“It is essential to prevent further escalation and a regional conflagration,” a spokesperson for Berlin told journalists on Wednesday. “We call on all players to exercise maximum restraint. The logic of mutual retaliatory strikes is a mistake.”

The spokesperson added that Germany would continue its “efforts to de-escalate the situation at full speed”.

The assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, which has not been officially claimed by Israel, came hours after an Israeli strike killed Fuad Shukur, a top commander of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant Islamist group, in a densely populated suburb of Beirut.

In a social media post, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant praised the “precise and professional operation” and said Shukur had “the blood of many Israelis on his hands”.

The strike on the Lebanese capital followed a rocket attack on a soccer field in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday in which 12 children were killed.

Hezbollah has continually exchanged rocket fire across Israel’s northern border since Hamas launched surprise attacks on Israel on 7 October that triggered the current war in Gaza. Hezbollah “firmly denies” responsibility for Saturday’s attack.

Gaza’s health ministry estimates that nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s retaliatory offensive in the besieged enclave, while roughly 90,000 have been injured.

Hamas killed around 1,200 Israelis and took roughly 240 hostages on 7 October, according to the Israeli authorities.

Iran and Hamas vow ‘revenge’

European calls for calm came amid explicit promises of revenge from Tehran and Hamas.

“We consider it our duty to seek revenge for [Haniyeh’s] blood as he was martyred in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in remarks published by the country’s state media.

Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, for whose inauguration Haniyeh had flown to Tehran wrote on X: “The Islamic Republic of Iran will defend its territorial integrity [and] honor and make the terrorist invaders regret their cowardly action.”

Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, also pledged to retaliate.

“The enemy will pay for its aggression with its own blood in Gaza, the West Bank, and within its borders, wherever our fighters reach by God’s will,” they said in a statement.

Condemned across the region—and world

The Israeli strike on Iran was condemned by other parties in the Middle East—including Qatar, which has served as a crucial mediator in Hamas-Israeli ceasefire negotiations.

“Political assassinations & continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?” Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani wrote on X.

“Peace needs serious partners & a global stance against the disregard for human life,” he added.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has repeatedly described the Israeli assault on Gaza as “genocide” and compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler, also condemned the “despicable act”.

“The terror inflicted by Israel on our geography, especially the oppression and genocide in Gaza, will definitely come to an end, and our region and our world will find peace,” Erdoğan wrote on X.

Haniyeh’s killing was criticised by other world powers, including Russia and China.

“This is an absolutely unacceptable political assassination, and it will lead to further escalation of tensions,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told RIA Novosti.

US ‘not aware of or involved in’ attack

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken denied any responsibility for Haniyeh’s assassination, saying that it “is something we were not aware of or involved in”.

Blinken also stressed the importance of reaching a ceasefire in Gaza, which “is manifestly in the interest of the hostages and bringing them home”.

Wednesday’s attack on Tehran was not the first time that Israel and Iran have been on the brink of a full-scale war in recent months. In April, Israel launched airstrikes on an S-300 long-range air defence system near Isfahan, a major city roughly 450 km south of Tehran.

The strike on Isfahan came after the first direct rocket attack on Israel by Iran on 13 April, which in turn followed an Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate in Damascus.

*Nick Alipour contributed reporting

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]