MADRID (Reuters) – The European Union’s foreign policy chief said on Monday the Middle East stood “on the edge of the cliff” and called for de-escalation in the conflict between Israel and Iran.
Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel on Saturday night in response to a suspected Israeli attack on the Tehran’s consulate in Damascus that killed seven officers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards including two senior commanders.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the April 1 airstrike on the consulate in Syria’s capital.
“We’re on the edge of the cliff and we have to move away from it,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told Spanish radio station Onda Cero. “We have to step on the brakes and reverse gear.”
Borrell said he expected a response from Israel to the unprecedented aerial attack by Iran but hoped it would not spark further escalation.
He said there was “profound division” within the Israel’s right-wing governing coalition between hardliners seeking fierce retaliation and a “more moderate and sensible” faction.
That faction advocates for retaliation, Borrell said, “but in a way that avoids a response to the response”.
Borrell, who spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian late on Sunday, said the EU needed to have the best possible relations with Iran despite the sanctions the bloc has imposed on the Islamic Republic over its disputed nuclear energy programme and other issues.
“It’s in everyone’s interest that Iran does not become a nuclear power and that the Middle East is pacified,” he said.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo; editing by David Latona and Mark Heinrich)
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