NEW YORK (AP) - Iran’s Foreign Minister warns his country will retaliate harshly if Israel carries out an attack on Iran.
Iran’s Foreign Minister is warning Israel that if it carries out an attack on Iran, Tehran will retaliate harshly.
“If the Israeli entity takes any step or measure against us, our retaliation will be stronger than the previous one,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, referring to this week’s attack on Israel with 180 missiles.
Araghchi made the comments Friday after meeting Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut.
The minister said that Iran’s attack on Israel was in “legitimate self defense” after its attacks on Iran and the Iranian consulate in Syria in April.
He said Iran backs any step that leads to a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah but added this will only happen when a cease-fire in Gaza goes into effect.
He said Iran backs any cease-fire on the condition that it “preserves the right of the Lebanese people, that it be accepted by the resistance (Hezbollah) and coincides with a cease-fire in Gaza.”
Israel’s military said Friday that militants in Gaza had fired two rockets into Israeli territory, the first time Israel has seen rocket fire from Gaza in about a month.
The military said one of the rockets was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system and the other fell in an open area near a kibbutz across the border from Gaza.
The number of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel has slowed considerably since the start of the war.