Iran-Israel: Vladimir Putin calls for ‘restraint’ in interview with Ebrahim Raissi

Israel and Iran exchanged new threats after Tehran’s massive and unprecedented attack on Saturday night deepened the risk of conflict in a Middle East already rocked by the war in the Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for “restraint” in an interview with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raissi, warning of “catastrophic consequences” of any new escalation. “Vladimir Putin expressed the hope that all parties will show reasonable restraint and avoid a new round of confrontation, which would have catastrophic consequences for the entire region,” the Kremlin said in a statement after the interviews with the two leaders.

Earlier in the day, Iranian President Ebrahim Raissi warned that the “slightest actions” by Israel against “Iran’s interests” would trigger a “harsh reaction” from his country. “We now firmly declare that the slightest action against Iran’s interests will certainly lead to a harsh, large-scale and painful response against all its perpetrators,” Ebrahim Raissi said late in the evening in a telephone interview with Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. Monday.

99% of strikes were missed

The Iranian president noted that this weekend his country, “exercising its right to self-defense,” struck “centers” where the bombing of the Iranian embassy annex in Damascus, Syria, attributed to Israel, was carried out. , April 1. This unprecedented operation “was successfully carried out with the aim of punishing the aggressor,” he added. In this weekend’s airstrike, Israel estimates it “thwarted” the attack, intercepting “99% of the shots” with the help of its allies, including the United States and France.

The war, meanwhile, shows no sign of respite in the Gaza Strip, besieged for more than six months and at risk of famine, where an Israeli offensive against Iranian ally Hamas killed 46 people in 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry. Palestinian Islamist movement. Israel announced the delivery of 553 trucks and 56 airdrops of food aid into the Palestinian enclave over the past 48 hours. The UN demands more from Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.