Reckoning in West Asia

Too soon to assume that the Israel-Iran crisis is over

Iran’s widely anticipated response over the weekend to Israel’s attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus on April 1, killing an Iranian general and six officers, appears to have caused a rethink among Tel Aviv’s key allies. Instead of pushing for escalation, the US has ruled out joining any Israeli counterattack, and French and UK leaders have called on Israel not to respond to Iran’s attack. This was also the message emanating from an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council meeting, at which Secretary General Antonio Guterres rightly pointed out that the world could not afford another war