The British Financial Times reported that the European Union and the United States are racing to prevent a war in the Middle East after the recent Israeli assassinations.
The newspaper said, in a report today, Thursday, that diplomats from the European Union and the United States are holding urgent discussions in an attempt to avoid the risk of a comprehensive regional war in response to the assassination of Hezbollah military commander Fouad Shukr and Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Beirut and Tehran.
According to the newspaper, Enrique Mora, a senior EU diplomat, held crucial talks with officials in the Iranian capital on Wednesday after Haniyeh was killed, while Brett McGurk, the US White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, held discussions in Saudi Arabia.
It indicated that Western diplomatic pressure comes as concerns mount about provoking a wider regional conflict with Iran and Hezbollah separately pledging revenge for the attacks.Israeli.
The talks focused on persuading Tehran either not to respond or to take symbolic action, officials said, after Israeli diplomats told Western interlocutors that their military was not planning further operations.
“Since last night, everyone has been pressuring Tehran not to respond and to contain this,” the newspaper quoted a Western diplomat involved in the discussions as saying.
Mora, who serves as political director and deputy secretary-general of the EU’s foreign service, has extensive experience negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program and was in Tehran for the inauguration of new President Masoud Pezeshkian when the attack that killed Haniyeh occurred on Wednesday.
“Mora used his connections with officials of the incoming Iranian administration in Tehran to convey the EU’s position on all issues of concern related to Iran in line with our policy of active engagement,” said EU foreign policy spokesman Peter Stano. .
The Financial Times indicated that the administration of US President Joe Biden held urgent consultations yesterday with Israel as well as other allies and partners with influence over Iran in an effort to distance all parties from the conflict.
Washington has tried to persuade Israel to respond in a measured manner to the missile attack in the Golan Heights, with diplomats warning of the consequences of responding deep inside Lebanon. The attack in Tehran has only increased US officials’ fears that any response could escalate into a regional conflict.
According to the newspaper, the White House has tried to downplay the possibility of a full-scale war even as officials privately acknowledge that this moment is among the most sensitive since October 7. US officials acknowledged that the attack in Tehran underscored the challenge they face in reaching a ceasefire agreement to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of the detainees, as Haniyeh was Hamas’s main interlocutor with the mediators. The newspaper quoted Senator Ben Cardin, chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as saying that “Haniyeh was one of the chief negotiators, and that makes things more challenging now in terms of the detainee negotiations and makes the hot situation even hotter.” Current and former officials believe that the course of the conflict may depend more on Iran’s calculations than Israel’s, and that “Washington’s ability to shape events is likely to be somewhat limited.” They added: “In the short term, the responses of Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas to the killing of Shukr and Haniyeh will increase the likelihood of a regional war or a return to mutual attacks.”
