Achi news desk-
Secretary of State Melanie Jolly said Monday that she urged her Israeli counterpart to “please take the victory” and avoid further escalation after Iran’s mass drone and missile attack on Israel over the weekend.
Almost all of the hundreds of missiles and drones that Iran launched at Israel on Saturday were intercepted, according to the White House and an Israeli military spokesman, and caused minimal damage. Israel’s military chief said the country would respond to the Iranian attack, but the form of that response was unclear Monday, when the War Cabinet of Israel gathered to discuss Iran’s actions.
The fear of further escalation in the region caused several airlines to stop their flights due to security concerns.
Jolie told reporters in Ottawa that while Canada and its allies support Israel’s right to defend itself, they are also “clearly pushing for de-escalation.”
“This is why I was clear to my colleague in Israel, please take the victory and make sure we can work together to restore peace to the region,” she said.
Leaders and officials around the world on Monday made similar appeals to Israel not to respond in kind to Iran’s attack, with many also noting that it was largely repulsed.
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White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby said that US President Joe Biden praised the preparations and actions taken by Israeli, US and coalition forces in repelling the attack in a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night, calling it “Extraordinary success”.
“The president urged the prime minister to think about what this success alone means to the rest of the region,” Kirby said.
Similarly, while speaking to journalists in Shanghai, German Chancellor Olaf Schulz warned that Israel’s success in preventing destruction and death on a large scale “perhaps should not be thrown away either – hence our advice to contribute to de-escalation themselves.”
Joseph Borrell, the foreign minister of the European Union, as well as French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Richie Sonk made similar requests. The United Nations and even the Russian government have issued calls for restraint.
The French Foreign Ministry said France was working with its partners to defuse the situation.
In a video statement posted Monday on social media, Lt.-Col. Harzi Halevi, the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, said that the IDF remains “at our highest level of readiness” and continues to assess the results of Iran’s attack and Israel’s potential response.
“Iran will face the consequences of its actions,” he said. “We will choose our response accordingly.”
Iran went on the offensive in response to an Israeli airstrike on its embassy compound in Syria on April 1, which killed seven Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers, including two senior commanders.
Israel and its prominent supporters, including Jewish advocacy groups in Canada and the G7, called Iran’s attack “unjustified.”
The Iranian attack marked the first time Iran launched a direct military attack on Israel, despite decades of enmity since the country’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
Military retaliation by Israel against Iran could spark a larger war in the Middle East, which is already a region on edge as Israel continues its military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7.
spoke to Global News in an interview before Saturday’s attack that aired on Sunday The Western BlocFormer Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that Iran should “directly pay the price” in its capital Tehran in the event of an Iranian attack on Israel.
– with files from Reuters and Associated Press
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