Middle East: Iran defends right to 'punish' Israel

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Qatar's prime minister and Egypt's foreign minister on Monday, while urging parties in the region to "refrain from escalation." 

"It's important that all parties take steps over the coming days to refrain from escalation and calm tensions," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, referring to Blinken's talks with the Qatari and Egyptian officials.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty had requested Blinken put pressure on Israel to "seriously engage" in Gaza cease-fire negotiations and stop practicing the policy of "brinkmanship."   

Blinken's discussions with the Middle Eastern leaders come amid fears that Iran could launch an attack on Israel. Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran last week, with Iran vowing retaliation over the killing and blaming Israel. 

Miller said an Iranian attack "doesn't serve anything. It only puts the entire region at risk."    

Iran launched a massive drone and missile attack on Israel in April after Israel was suspected of striking an Iranian diplomatic building in Damascus. That attack did minimal damage to Israel, as most of the drones and missiles were intercepted.   

US President Joe Biden and Jordanian King Abdullah II spoke by phone amid tensions in the Middle East after the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. Biden and Jordan's King consulted on efforts to end the Israel-Hamas war and the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.  

"The leaders discussed their efforts to de-escalate regional tensions, including through an immediate cease-fire and hostage release deal," the two leaders said, according to a White House readout. 

The Jordanian royal court also produced a readout of the call, detailing the Jordanian side of the conversation.

"His Majesty warned of extremist settler violence against Palestinians, as well as unilateral Israeli measures that undermine the prospects of peace and target the historical and legal status quo of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, which may fuel violence in the region," the Royal Hashemite Court said.  

"The King reaffirmed the important role of the United States in stopping the war in Gaza and reaching an immediate and permanent cease-fire, as well as creating a political horizon to achieve just and comprehensive peace on the basis of the two-state solution," the Jordanian statement added.   

The United Nations has announced it is terminating the employment of nine individuals at its agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) due to their potential involvement in the October 7 terror attacks on Israel.

The UN said its investigation indicates that in nine cases, UNRWA staff "may have been involved" in the attacks conducted by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on southern Israel. 

The attacks killed 1,200 Israelis and prompted the ongoing war in Gaza, where officials from the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry say nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been thus far killed.

Israel had earlier accused UNRWA staff of involvement in the attacks.

A statement by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) said 19 cases were investigated. 

In one case, the OIOS could not obtain any evidence to support involvement in the attack. In nine other cases, the evidence obtained was insufficient.

German airline Lufthansa said on Monday that it was extending its suspension of flights to Tel Aviv in Israel, Tehran in Iran and Beirut in Lebanon for another four days up to and including August 12.

The airline also said that its planes would be avoiding Iraqi and Iranian airspace altogether until at least August 7.

The Lufthansa Group, which also includes subsidiaries Eurowings, Austrian Airlines, Swiss und Brussels Airlines, is also stopping flights to Amman, Jordan, and Erbil in northern Iraq's Kurdistan until Wednesday.

Affected passengers are entitled to free booking alterations or cancellations.

French airline Air France and various airlines from the Middle East region have also temporarily suspended their flights to and from Beirut, where frustrations were growing on Monday at Lebanon's only international airport.

"I was supposed to fly to Germany via Istanbul this morning, but the flight kept getting postponed," one passenger told the German DPA news agency. "Now we are supposed to take off at 6 p.m.," he said.

One father said he had been at the airport since Sunday with his five children, waiting for a flight to Istanbul that had been postponed several times.

Amid Iran's threats and Israel's determination to defend itself following the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, diplomatic efforts to reduce tensions have continued abroad.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked his counterparts from the G7 nations to exert diplomatic pressure on Iran, Hezbollah and Israel to "maintain maximum restraint" but said Washington expected an attack on Israel as early as Monday.

The United Nations' human rights chief, Volker Turk, called on "all parties, along with those states with influence, to act urgently to de-escalate what has become a very precarious situation."

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, whose country currently holds the rotating G7 presidency, said in a statement: "We call on the parties involved to desist from any initiative that could hinder the path of dialogue and moderation."

Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi made a rare trip to Tehran on Sunday to deliver a message from King Abdullah II to President Masoud Pezeshkian. There are fears that Jordanian airspace could be violated in any serious exchange of fire between Iran and Israel.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late on Sunday that his country was "determined to stand against" Iran and its allied armed groups "on all fronts."

Former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived in the Iranian capital Tehran on Monday for high-level talks amid rising tensions in the region.

Shoigu, now Secretary of Russia's National Security Council, met his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Ahmadian and was also meeting the chief-of-staff of the Iranian armed forces Major General Mohammad Bagheri before a reception with the new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

According to Russian state media, the officials were due to discuss regional and international security questions as well as joint Russian-Iranian economic projects and a strengthening of bilateral relations.

Russia has cultivated closer ties with Iran since launching its full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022, notably as a source of military equipment. 

Last week, Moscow condemned the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, which Iran believes was carried out by Israel, and warned of "the extremely dangerous consequences of such actions."

Fighting continued on the Israel-Lebanon border on Monday, with the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah announcing that one of its fighters had been killed in an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon, which reportedly also killed a paramedic.

"The enemy raid that took place near the cemetery [in Mais al-Jabal] killed two people," Lebanon's Health Ministry said in a statement. It also reported two more deaths in a separate strike in the southern town of Hula.

In response, Hezbollah said it had launched "explosive-laden drones" at military installations in northern Israel.

The Israeli military confirmed that "numerous suspicious aerial targets were identified crossing from Lebanon" into northern Israel, starting a fire and "moderately" injuring an officer and a soldier.

Meanwhile, Israeli fighter jets twice broke the sound barrier above the Lebanese capital Beirut.

Iran said on Monday that it was not actively seeking to escalate regional tensions in the Middle East but that it has a "legal right to punish" Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week.

"Iran seeks to establish stability in the region, but this will only come with punishing the aggressor and creating deterrence against the adventurism of the Zionist regime," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani, using a term commonly deployed in Iranian government circles to describe the state of Israel.

Kanaani also called on the United States to end its backing for Israel and instead support the "punishment of the aggressor."

Tehran blames the killing of Haniyeh, the late political leader of the Iranian-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, on Israel, although Israel has not claimed responsibility.

Officials have, however, confirmed that it was an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) drone strike that killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr on the outskirts of the Lebanese capital Beirut, also last week.

Also on Monday, Iranian acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani summoned foreign ambassadors in Tehran to reiterate Iran's will to strike back at Israel.

Tehran announced as well an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday, held at its request to discuss the killing of Haniyeh and Iran's response.

Iran previously launched strikes against Israel in retaliation for what they said was an Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria in April, in what was then an unprecedented move. Almost all of the weapons were intercepted by Israeli air defenses with support from an international coalition including the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Jordan.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps' top commander, Hossein Salami, on Monday repeated the elite unit's threat that Israel "will receive punishment in due time."

mf/rmt (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)