DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran‘s threatened retaliatory strike on Israel over the assassination of Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh drew major world powers on Tuesday into a high-wire act of diplomacy.
Halting or limiting an Iranian strike in some eyes could bolster a monthslong effort to reach a cease-fire in a war that’s devastated the Gaza Strip and killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, according to the territory’s health ministry. It could also free the Israeli hostages who remain captive there since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and began the conflict.
Failure to do so could see Iran launch a complex drone-and-missile attack in tandem with Lebanon‘s Hezbollah militia, now separately aggrieved over Israel’s killing of one of its top commanders, straining the ability of Israel’s missile defenses and its allies to defend against the assault. Widespread losses could push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line government into its own direct attack on Iran — and drag the wider Middle East into a regional war.
That fear has prompted a flurry of diplomacy in the region. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom on Monday urged Iran and its allies to “refrain from attacks that would further escalate regional tensions and jeopardize the opportunity to agree (to) a cease-fire and the release of hostages.”
In a call, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned Iran’s new reformist…
