Iran has warned Israel that it could launch preemptive strike through proxies ‘in the coming hours’ against Israel if the attacks against Hamas in Gaza continue.
Israel-Hamas crisis
Since Hamas militant group launched a surprise attack against Israel on October 8 killing over a thousand Israeli civilians and kidnapping hundreds, Israel has retaliated, bombing Hamas hideouts in Gaza and creating a fuel, food and water blockade as Israel prepares for a land invasion.
Iran sends fresh warning to Israel
Iran on Tuesday, October 17 warned that the country’s proxies around West Asia could launch preemptive strikes on Israel ‘in the coming hours’.
Referring to his recent meeting with Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said: ‘In the coming hours, any preemptive action against the Zionist regime is conceivable.’
‘The leaders of the resistance will not allow the Zionist regime to do whatever it wants in Gaza and then go to other fronts of the resistance,’ Amirabdollahian said.
The Iranian minister further claimed that his country ‘does not give orders’ to the Iran-backed terrorist groups throughout the region but supports them.
‘Today, when we talk about the resistance in the region, it is not only Hezbollah, and we are witnessing the activities of various resistance groups in the region,’ the Iranian official said.
Amirabdollahian also threatened if the war expands to other fronts, ‘it will change the map of Israel.… if the war crimes of the Zionist regime are not stopped, new fronts will be opened and this issue will be inevitable,’ Amirabdollahian said.
The comments by Amirabdollahian came after he held a series of meetings with leaders of Iranian proxies, including Hamas and Hezbollah, and politicians in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Qatar in recent days.
Iran is not on the same page with the US
The Iranian minister also claimed that the US messages Iran asking them to show ‘restraint’ and not expand the conflict, but that Iran responded that ‘we are not seeking to expand the war, but restraint is not unilateral.’
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Responding to the possibility of Iran joining the war against Israel, Amirabdollahian said: ‘Every possibility is conceivable…no party can be indifferent to the continuation of these crimes.’
Amirabdollahian added that ‘if we do not defend Gaza today, tomorrow we will have to deal with the phosphorus bombs of the regime in our own hospitals. An opportunity has been obtained for us to stop the Zionists inside their own home.’
