Ready For A 'Decisive And Regretful' Response If Israel Attacks, Iran Warns UN Chief Guterres

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has warned UN chief Antonio Guterres that Tehran is ready for a “decisive and regretful” response if Israel attacks Iran in response to a ballistic missile attack against the Jewish country caught up in the Gaza conflict.

“Iran, while making all-out efforts to protect the peace and security of the region, is fully prepared for a decisive and regretful response to any adventures” by Israel, Araghchi said during a phone call with Guterres, according to a statement by his office, reported by Iran International on Wednesday.

This statement comes as Israel escalated its bombing campaign in Lebanon in recent weeks, hitting Hezbollah’s strongholds of south Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut and the eastern Bekaa region. The hostilities had been playing out along Lebanon’s southern border with Israel since October last year in parallel with Israel’s offensive in Gaza that was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.

Israeli strikes have killed at least 2,350 people over the last year, the Lebanese health ministry said, and more than 1.2 million people in Lebanon have been displaced. The majority have been killed since late September when Israel expanded its military campaign.

‘Appropriate for Israel’

On Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the United States opposes the bombing campaign that Israel has carried out in Beirut in past weeks and has communicated its concerns, particularly over the civilian death toll.

“There are specific strikes that it would be appropriate for Israel to carry out. But when it comes to the scope and nature of the bombing campaign that we saw in Beirut for the past few weeks, it’s something that we made clear to the government of Israel we had concerns with and we were opposed to,” Miller said.

The civilian death toll was among Washington’s concerns, he said, without elaborating. Miller’s comments represent a harsher tone than Washington has adopted so far toward Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, which Israel says are aimed at degrading Iran-aligned Hezbollah and pushing its forces north and away from the border.

Miller said Washington has seen the Israeli bombing of Beirut diminish in recent days, adding that the United States would continue to monitor the situation. “We’ve seen them come down over the past few days, which is not a prediction about what will happen in the future,” he said.

(With agency inputs)