Egyptian president warns ongoing escalation in Middle East may lead to regional war…reports Asian Lite News
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi warned that the continuation of the current escalation in the Middle East is putting the region at risk of a possible regional war.
Sisi made the remarks during a phone call with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, the Egyptian Presidency said in a statement.
During the phone conversation, the two leaders discussed the situation in the Middle East and the Gaza Strip, according to the statement.
Sisi reviewed the latest developments pertinent to the Egyptian efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and provide humanitarian aid, stressing the need to end the tragedy that the Palestinian people face immediately.
He added that it was important for the international community to undertake a decisive role in the international recognition of the Palestinian state in a way that supports peace in the region and the two-state solution.
For his part, the Bulgarian president expressed appreciation for the Egyptian efforts to calm the situation in the region and his willingness to continue coordination and consultation with Sisi with the aim of contributing to restoring security and peace in the region.
Muslims cause
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called on Muslim states to take joint actions to force Israel to stop its “crimes and genocide” in Gaza.
He made the appeal during talks with visiting Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Tehran, according to a statement by his office.
“Muslim states and all those countries that are committed to international law and frameworks stand together and, through taking joint actions, manage to force the supporters of Israel into reining it in and stopping its crimes and genocide in Gaza,” said Pezeshkian.
Applauding Qatar’s efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, he said that while all legal international regulations were constantly being violated in Gaza, the countries “claiming to be advocating human rights” chose to remain silent in the face of those “crimes” and even supported the ones perpetrating the violence.
Tensions in the region have been heightened recently as Iran and its allies vowed to take revenge for the killings of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah’s military commander Fouad Shokor last month.
Haniyeh, who was in Iran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Pezeshkian, was killed on July 31 along with his bodyguard when their residence in Tehran was attacked, one day after the death of Shokor in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut.
Hezbollah unleashed hundreds of missiles and drones against Israel early Sunday morning in vengeance for the killing of Shokor while Israel claimed conducting a series of “preemptive airstrikes” targeting Hezbollah’s rocket launchers in southern Lebanon.
Iran has not made its retaliation yet, but a response to the assassination of Haniyeh will be “definitive, measured and well calculated,” Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi said on X on Sunday night.
“We do not fear escalation, yet do not seek it,” he added.
Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Mohammad Baqeri also vowed on Monday that the revenge is “definite,” semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
Baqeri said Iran would decide about its revenge for Haniyeh’s assassination itself, and the resistance axis, as was seen on Sunday, would act separately and independently.
He described the “cowardly” assassination of the Hamas chief in Tehran as an “unforgettable” incident, saying Iran would not fall into the trap of the enemies’ media “provocations.”
During talks with Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Brown on Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, “Iran’s aggression has reached an all-time high”
To counter this, Israel and the United States “must work together to achieve and project groundbreaking capabilities in all arenas,” a readout of his office quoted Gallant as saying. ■
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Suicide Drones
Hezbollah claimed that it targeted Israeli “spy equipment” at the Ramyah site in northern Israel with a suicide drone, achieving a direct hit.
“In support of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and their resistance, our fighters targeted the spy equipment at the Ramyah site with a suicide drone, hitting it directly,” the Shiite group stated.
Military sources in Lebanon, speaking anonymously, told Xinhua that Israeli drones and warplanes carried out 12 airstrikes on border towns and villages in southern Lebanon on Monday. The strikes targeted a car and two motorcycles, causing only material damage.
They added that an Israeli drone fired two air-to-ground missiles at a vehicle traveling on the main road in the Abra area, setting the car on fire. The driver, reportedly a leader of a Palestinian faction, survived the attack.
Israeli artillery shelled 16 border towns in southern Lebanon, destroying 11 homes and damaging around 24 others, with no casualties reported.
Since early Sunday morning, Israeli and Hezbollah forces have engaged in extensive exchanges of fire along the Israel-Lebanon border, marking a significant escalation in their conflict.
Hezbollah has announced it launched hundreds of missiles into Israel in retaliation for the killing of its commander, Fouad Shokor, in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut last month. In response, Israel reported conducting numerous preemptive airstrikes targeting Hezbollah’s rocket launchers in southern Lebanon.
Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border have intensified since Oct. 8, 2023, when Hezbollah launched rockets toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas’ attack on Israel the day before.
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