‘Iran to blame’ for widening conflicts in Middle East, Israeli Ambassador to the UK says

3 January 2024, 21:05

Iran is to blame for widening conflicts across the Middle East, the Israeli Ambassador to the UK has told LBC.

At least 95 people were killed following two explosions at a memorial for the Iranian general Qasem Soleimani on Wednesday in the city of Kerman.

It also followed the death of the deputy leader of Hamas, Saleh Arouri, on Tuesday after he was killed in an explosion in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

No group has claimed responsibility for what Iranian state media is calling a "terrorist" attack.

But Israeli ambassador Tsipi Hotovely has told LBC: "Iran is in charge of those actions."

When asked if the two instances showed that the conflict was escalating in the Middle East, Ms Hotovely said: “We are trying to minimise the fights to the Gaza front, we are trying to make all the diplomatic efforts possible at the northern border of Israel.

She added: “Talking about Iran, we just heard Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying that we’re not allowing this work of the Houthis, that are definitely a proxy of Iran, to prevent legitimate trade-ships to go and navigate in this area of the Red Sea and to make sure that freedom of navigation will be kept.

Read more: More than 100 killed in bomb blasts at Iranian memorial to assassinated general amid growing Middle East tensions

Read more: UK demands ‘immediate end’ to Houthi attacks on boats in Red sea in joint statement signed by 12 countries

Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely says IDF chief of staff believes conflict could go on for 'months'

“This is part of this international coalition led by the Americans and with the UK’s incredible efforts to fight the Houthis. But we need to call it with its name, it’s Iran who’s in charge of those actions”.

It comes after the UK called for an "immediate end" to Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea in a statement signed by 11 other countries on Wednesday evening.

Ms Hotovely also told LBC that Hamas’ infrastructure in the Gaza Strip “must be destroyed” to wipe out its underground tunnel city.

She said: “Gaza has an underground tunnel city and in order to get to this underground tunnel city those areas must be destroyed.”

When challenged on the subject, Ms Hotovely said: “Do you have another solution how to destroy the underground tunnel city?”

After being pressed for a second time on whether she was arguing to flatten Gaza, she said: “We’re not, we’re actually attacking infrastructure that is launching rockets on our cities”.

Ms Hotovely said her “prayers go towards hoping the war would be over” in 2024.

She said she had spoken with the IDF’s senior chief of staff and they had “spoken about months” in outlining an end to the war.

“We need to bring back out people in the north in a new situation that actually respects the 1701 UN resolution after the second Lebanon war”, she said, adding that they needed a situation where Hezbollah were not so close to northern Israeli communities.