Parallel to U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron’s visit, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
By JNS
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron was set to touch down in Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning amid Western attempts to prevent an Israeli retaliation against Iran.
A British official told local media on Tuesday night that London’s top diplomat was expected to sit down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Israel Katz, and possibly also with minister-without-portfolio and War Cabinet member Benny Gantz.
Though the one-day visit is to focus on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Cameron will also bring up Tehran’s mass missile and drone attack and tensions with Iran-backed terror groups in Lebanon, The Times of Israel reported.
Overnight Saturday, the Islamic Republic launched more than 300 missiles and UAVs at the Jewish state. The IDF announced that Israel and its allies, including the U.K. Royal Air Force, intercepted 99% of the projectiles; none of the 170 drones sent by Iran entered Israel’s airspace.
Ahead of Cameron’s arrival, Netanyahu on Tuesday spoke by phone with his U.K. counterpart Rishi Sunak for the first time since the attack.
According to Downing Street’s readout, Sunak “stressed that significant escalation was in no one’s interest and would only deepen insecurity in the Middle East. This was a moment for calm heads to prevail.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said that Netanyahu had thanked the United Kingdom for its role in averting the multi-pronged attack.
Western governments have called on Israel to refrain from retaliating against Iran, fearing a regional war. The United States has reportedly told Israel that it will not participate in an attack against the Islamic Republic.
Parallel to Cameron’s visit, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday for meetings with Netanyahu, Katz and other senior officials, Berlin’s Federal Foreign Office said.
In the press release, Berlin stressed that talks would “focus in particular on preventing the spiral of violence from escalating unabated.” Baerbock intends to advocate for new E.U. sanctions against Iran.
“What matters now is to put a stop to Iran without encouraging further escalation,” the top diplomat told reporters ahead of her departure.
Israel might launch an attack in the coming days, U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal on Monday. Jerusalem’s War Cabinet reportedly discussed several possible military responses, with each of them designed to inflict pain on the regime while avoiding all-out war.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a member of the War Cabinet, told his American counterpart on Sunday night that the Jewish state had no choice but to respond to the unprecedented aerial attacks.
The Walla news site, citing a senior American official and a source privy to the conversation, reported that Gallant stressed to U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that Jerusalem could not accept a reality in which ballistic missiles are fired at Israeli territory without repercussions.
A 7-year-old Israeli Bedouin girl wounded in the Iranian assault is still in critical condition after undergoing a series of surgeries, a spokesperson from Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva told JNS on Tuesday.