Russia, China, France and Germany, as well as Arab states Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, urged restraint.
The leaders of the Group of 7 nations condemned Iran’s attack and said they would work to stabilise the situation, warning in a statement that Tehran risked “an uncontrollable regional escalation”.
ESCALATION
Analysts debated how far Iran’s attack was calibrated to cause genuine devastation in Israel, or to save face at home after vows of revenge while avoiding a major new war.
“I think the Iranians took into consideration the fact that Israel has a very, very strong multi-layer anti-missile system and they probably took into consideration that there will not be too many casualties,” said Sima Shine, a former senior Mossad official at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.
But if Iran was hoping for a muted response, like with its missile attacks on US forces in Iraq after the killing of Guards commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020, she warned “I don’t think Israel sees it this way”.
In Gaza, Iran’s attack drew applause from many Palestinians as rare payback for the Israeli offensive on their enclave that has killed at least 33,000 people.
“We have been slaughtered for over six months and no one dared to do anything. Now Iran, after its consulate was hit, is hitting back at Israel and this brings joy into our hearts,” Majed Abu Hamza, 52, a father of seven, from Gaza City.
On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized an Israel-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important energy shipping routes, underscoring the risks to the world economy of a wider conflict.
