Iran’s foreign minister warned on Monday that a regional network of militias known in parts of the Middle East as the “axis of resistance” would open “multiple fronts” against Israel if its attacks continued to kill civilians in Gaza.
“Time is running out very fast,” the official, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, said during a live televised interview with Iranian state television on Monday night. “If the war crimes against the Palestinians are not immediately stopped, other multiple fronts will open and this is inevitable.”
Mr. Amir Abdollahian spoke after returning to Tehran from a tour of capitals aligned or close to Iran. He met the top political official of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, in Doha, Qatar; the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, in Beirut; and President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in Damascus.
In the interview, he said that in those meetings, the leaders of what is regionally called “the resistance” told him that “their hands are on the trigger” and said that “pre-emptive action” was possible “in the coming few hours” because those leaders would “naturally not allow the Zionist regime to do whatever it wants in Gaza” and then turn its attention to them. » | Farnaz Fassihi | Published: Monday, October 16, 2023; updated: Tuesday, October 17, 2023
