The Iranian foreign minister has warned that the risk of a “wider” conflict in the region has sharply increased due to the United States’ all-out support for Israel amid the regime’s genocidal aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in an exclusive interview with ABC News on Tuesday, as the bloody Gaza war still rages with no end in sight.
“The scope of the war has become wider. This means that the danger of having a wider war in the region has gone up,” he said.
The top Iranian diplomat noted that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu “will not survive for 10 minutes” if the US stops its support for the Gaza offensive.
“If the US today stops its backing — logistical and weapons, political and media support — of the genocidal war launched by Israel, then I can assure you that Netanyahu will not survive for 10 minutes,” he asserted. “So the key to solve the problem is in Washington before it is in Tel Aviv.”
He also emphasized that Iran only wants to see peace across West Asia, saying, “Nobody is going to benefit from any war. We believe that the solution is never war.”
Israel waged its brutal war on besieged Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out a historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
However, 110 days into the aggression, Tel Aviv has failed to achieve its objectives in Gaza despite killing at least 25,490 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 63,354 others.
The US is a partner in the Gaza carnage as it has offered untrammeled support for Israel during the devastating onslaught, and blocked UN resolutions calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
In solidarity with the Palestinians in besieged Gaza, the Yemeni armed forces have targeted ships in the Red Sea with owners linked to Israel or those going to and from ports in the occupied territories.
In response, the US and its allies have conducted illegal strikes on Yemen and alleged that Iran is transferring arms to the conflict-ridden country.
US anti-Iran claims on Yemen ‘is a TV show’
The Iranian foreign minister rejected the baseless accusations, saying the US military is fabricating information against the Islamic Republic in this regard.
“Mostly, this is a TV show,” Amir-Abdollahian noted.
He further described Hamas as “a Palestinian liberation group that is standing against occupation.”
All those involved in Soleimani’s assassination must be ‘brought to justice’
Also in his interview, Amir-Abdollahian said whether former US president Donald Trump won or lost his bid for another term in office would ultimately have little impact on Tehran-Washington relationship.
“Individuals are not important, what matters is the behavior of the government that takes the office,” he said.
Trump authorized the US assassination of Iran’s top anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani and his companions in Iraq in January 2020.
“That was a big, big mistake made by Trump. That is not something that we will be able to forget,” Amir-Abdollahian said, adding that Tehran still wanted to see “all the people involved” in the strike “brought to justice.”
