Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke by telephone with European colleagues immediately after his country’s missile attack on Israel, state media reported Wednesday.
Araghchi spoke with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock as well as colleagues from the United Kingdom, France and other countries, according to Iranian news agency IRNA.
The missile attack on Israel is now over, Araghchi was quoted as saying by IRNA.
“But if the Zionist regime takes retaliatory measures, our response will be even harsher,” the minister said, referring to possible Israeli reprisals. He stressed that Iran did not seek escalation, but neither did it fear war.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it fired 200 missiles at Israel on Tuesday evening. The attack was in retaliation for the killings of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and an Iranian general, the powerful elite wing of Iran’s armed forces said.
Initial estimates from the Israeli military put the number of missiles fired at around 180.
Three Israeli air bases and the headquarters of Israel’s foreign intelligence service, Mossad, were targets of the attack, according to Iran.
