The Iranian attack, which reportedly included 110 ballistic missiles, 36 cruise missiles and 185 drones, was much larger than the Iran foreign minister had assured him it would be, Cameron said…reports Asian Lite News
Foreign Secretary David Cameron urged Israel not to retaliate after Iran’s drone and missile attack, saying it should “think with head as well as heart” because Tehran’s strike had been a near total failure.
The strike by more than 300 missiles and drones from Iran caused only modest damage in Israel as most were shot down by its Iron Dome defence system and with help from the U.S., Britain, France and Jordan. It followed a suspected Israeli airstrike on Iran’s embassy compound in Syria on April 1.
“I think they’re perfectly justified to think they should respond because they have been attacked, but we are urging them as friends to think with head as well as heart, to be smart as well as tough,” Cameron told BBC TV.
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He said he was urging Israel not to escalate the tensions in the Middle East.
“In many ways this has been a double defeat for Iran. The attack was an almost total failure, and they revealed to the world that they are the malign influence in the region prepared to do this. So our hope is that there won’t be a retaliatory response,” he told Sky News.
Cameron said Britain would also work with allies to look at imposing more sanctions on Iran, and it urged Israel to return its focus on agreeing a ceasefire with Iran-backed Hamas in the Gaza war.
Cameron said Israel should, as President Joe Biden had said to them, “take the win and then move on to focus on how to eradicate Hamas in Gaza and how to get those hostages free”.
He added: “Israeli people this morning are thinking ‘We’ve suffered this massive attack. Of course, we want our government to respond.’ And that’s why I think we have to be sensitive in the way we put this, but to say ‘Look, you have had a win because the Iran attack was such a failure and the smart thing to do as well as the tough thing to do now is actually not to escalate.’”
The Iranian attack, which reportedly included 110 ballistic missiles, 36 cruise missiles and 185 drones, was much larger than the Iran foreign minister had assured him it would be, Cameron said.
Calling for a pivot to Hamas and the hostage talks, he said: “Hamas have been offered a deal by Israel to release many, many prisoners inside Israeli prisons and to have a pause in the fighting in Gaza, and Hamas should take that deal. They are the only reason why there’s fighting continuing.”
Cameron predicted a significant change in the way Israel was handling the aid issue. “We have now seen Israel saying, ‘We’re going to allow more aid into Gaza, 500 trucks a day, opening the port of Ashdod, opening times lasting longer and proper deconfliction’.”
But he said: “It has been immensely frustrating. But we are now making progress. And I’m checking daily that whether the things Israel has said the a’re going to do they will actually do,” adding that he would continue to press Israel on the issue.
Cameron also defended UK arms sales to Israel, saying the attacks at the weekend had shown how important it was that Israel was able to defend itself. “What Saturday night in many ways proves is that Israel does need the right to defend itself, and indeed the means to do so. Had these weapons got through, we could have seen thousands of people killed, including citizens of Israel, and a very significant escalation in this conflict.”
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