Jordan king says Israel’s Iran attacks threaten region and beyond

BRUSSLE, Belgium: Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned in an address to the European Parliament on Tuesday that Israel’s “attacks” on Iran threatened to dangerously escalate tensions in the “region and beyond”.

Speaking as the arch foes traded fire for a fifth day, Abdullah said that “with Israel’s expansion of its offensive to include Iran, there is no telling where the boundaries of this battleground will end”.

“And that, my friends, is a threat to people everywhere,” he told lawmakers in Strasbourg.

Israel says its air campaign aims to prevent its sworn enemy from acquiring nuclear weapons, an ambition Tehran denies.

The escalation — capping decades of enmity that has spiked with the war in Gaza — has derailed nuclear talks with Iran and stoked fears of a broader conflict.

Abdullah addressed lawmakers at length on the “shameful” situation in Gaza, urging the international community to keep pressing for a resolution to the eight-decade Israeli-Palestinian conflict as critical to “our mutual security”.

“What version of our humanity allows the unthinkable to become routine, permits weaponising famine against children, normalises the targeting of health workers, journalists and civilians seeking refuge in camps,” he asked.

“This conflict must end, and the only viable solution is one grounded in a just peace, international law and mutual recognition.”

Israel has pounded most of Gaza into rubble following Hamas’s attack of October 7, 2023. The death toll in the Palestinian territory has surpassed 55,000 people, the majority of them civilians.

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Likewise, China’s President Xi Jinping said Tuesday he was “deeply worried” by Israel’s military action against Iran, Chinese state media reported.

“Israel launching military action against Iran has caused a sudden escalation in tension in the Middle East, China is deeply worried about this,” he said during a meeting with the Uzbek president in Kazakhstan, Xinhua reported.

Two explosions were heard on Tuesday in Iran’s northwestern city of Tabriz, local media reported as Iran and Israel trade fire for a fifth day.

“Two explosions occurred in Tabriz five minutes apart,” the Ham Mihan newspaper reported. “Thick smoke was seen around Tabriz Tuesday morning after the explosion,” Mehr news agency reported, publishing a video from the city, which lies more than 600 kilometres (375 miles) from Tehran and is home to a major air force base targeted by Israel in recent days.

Similarly, explosions were heard over the Iranian capital, Tehran, too, earlier in the day, the country’s state media reported, as the Israel-Iran conflicts enters its fifth day.

As per latest reports, three locations were hit by Israeli projectiles in Tehran.

Iran also accused the Group of Seven nations on Tuesday of siding with Israel in its call for “de-escalation” in their intensifying conflict, now in its fifth day.

“The G7 must give up its one-sided rhetoric and tackle the real source of the escalation — Israel’s aggression,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said.