The entire international community has agreed this Sunday at the UN, during an emergency session of the Security Council requested by Israelin a call to avoid escalation in the Middle East, to which even Iran joined. The international community, with special forcefulness from the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has called for “maximum moderation” and demands to lower the tension: “The Middle East is on the edge of the precipice… Not even the East Half “Not even the world can afford more wars.”

However, Israel’s ambassador, Gilad Erdan, has responded that no one had the right to ask his country “stay idly”after the attack with drones and missiles launched on Saturday night by Iran against Israel and the territories it occupies in Palestine and Syria, and added: “We are a nation of lions“.

There was great expectation about the tone that Iran and Israel would use before the Security Council, the only place in the world where representatives of these two countries without diplomatic relations sit just meters apart. Both Erdan and the Iranian representative Saeed Iravani They accused themselves of being the main actor in regional destabilization.

For the Israeli, Iran has filled the region with ‘proxies’ (delegated agents) who seek its destruction tirelessly from Yemen, Lebanon or Syria through allied militias. While Iravani has recalled the multiple Security Council resolutions ignored by Israel in the Palestinian conflict or the powers that country gives itself to intervene extraterritorially, such as when on April 1 it attacked the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, killing 13 people (seven of them Iranian) without the international community reacting.

The UN Secretary General recalled this Sunday that International law prohibits “retaliatory actions that include the use of force“. “The Middle East is on the edge of the precipice. The people of the region face a real danger of widespread and devastating conflict. This is a time for de-escalation and de-escalation. “It is time to show maximum moderation,” she insisted.

Iran says it does not want a conflict with the US

The involvement of the United States in the latest attack, recognized by Washington and Israel and which consisted of the interception of missiles launched from Iran, had raised the level of concern about the possible extension of the conflict, given the close alliance that the United States has with Israel. . And in fact, the Israeli ambassador expressly thanked the United States: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the United States and our allies – he did not mention other names – for staying by our side and defending us against the ayatollah regime,” Erdan said.

Minutes later, the Iranian representative did not evade the issue but fled from the belligerent tone: his country – he said – “has no intention of entering into conflict with the United States in the region” and has demonstrated “commitment to peace, as well as containment” after the US involvement in the interception of Iranian drones and missiles was proven.

Now, if the United States were to go further and initiate an operation against Iranian citizens or interests, “will use their inherent right to respond proportionately“, warned the diplomat.

Unanimous call to avoid escalation

The requests to avoid escalation came from all mouthsstarting with the Secretary General, António Guterres – who requested to intervene in this extraordinary session on Sunday – and continuing with Russia, China or the United States, usually opposed in almost everything.

Guterres has said that “neither the region nor the world can afford another war,” and has insisted three times on the “common responsibility” of the international community to prevent an escalation between Iran and Israel, achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, secure the release of hostages held by Hamas and prevent a deterioration in violence in the West Bank .

The Russian ambassador, who has also called for calm, has not stopped emphasizing “the hypocrisy and double standards (of the Security Council), which is almost embarrassing to look at”, given the fact that the attack against Israel has merited an urgent session even on a Sunday but this did not happen when Russia requested a similar one after Israel’s bombing of the Damascus consulate.

The elephant in the room today was called the Gaza war: with all countries holding their breath for a possible new war, there was a danger of forgetting the one that has actually been taking place in the Palestinian strip for six months. However, the majority of speakers – with the exception of the Israeli – They did not forget it and asked for steps to achieve an immediate ceasefiresomething that even the US and the United Kingdom, Israel’s unwavering allies, requested, despite the fact that this country refuses any type of truce.