Alberto Rubio
Iran’s ambassador to Spain, Reza Zabib, admitted yesterday that his government has held talks with the Swiss embassy in Tehran for the latter to act as an intermediary with the United States regarding the crisis with Israel and to convince Benjamin Netanyahu’s “Zionist regime” to “control its barbaric behaviour”.
Zabib said of possible retaliation being considered by the Israeli prime minister’s war cabinet that, if its territory or its branches in other countries are attacked, “we will reject any aggression”. “We know the behaviour of this barbaric regime”, he insisted, “and we are 100% prepared to give a response that will be much more forceful”.
The ambassador explained that the launching of missiles and drones against Israeli territory last Saturday night “was a perfectly calculated, limited and very calibrated operation”, in accordance with the right to self-defence set out in Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. He said that, “for our part, there is no need for further punitive action, we consider the incident over” and left the responsibility for what might happen from now on in Israel’s camp: “the rest is up to the aggressor”.
During a press conference at his residence, the ambassador explained that Iran gave sufficient advance warning to its allies in the region – 72 hours beforehand – and considered that the fact that its attack on Israel came two weeks after the launching of missiles against its consulate in Damascus is enough to prove that Tehran is not seeking an escalation of the conflict. “We have advised (Israel’s allies) to convince it to stop its barbaric behaviour,” he said.
Reza Zabib regretted that the US, UK and France vetoed the adoption of a text condemning the bombing of its consulate in Damascus, which Israel has neither confirmed nor denied it was responsible for. He pointed out that the Vienna Convention defends the inviolability of diplomatic headquarters throughout the world, and said that “if international law is not respected, no one can guarantee peace and stability”.
Asked whether he was satisfied with the reaction of the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, condemning last weekend’s attack on Israel, the Iranian ambassador limited himself to assuring that “we admire the Spanish position in support of the Palestinian people”. He also expressed his hope that “the international community will react to this aggression and support a resolution to restore the security balance in the world”.
Zabib considered the attack on Israel a success, despite claims from Tel Aviv that 99 per cent of the missiles and drones were intercepted. “The Zionist propaganda should not be trusted,” he said. He said “the operation was designed to saturate the Israeli defence system” and “the missiles hit the targets we had set ourselves”.
