US says Iran has not withdrawn threat to attack Israel

White House national security spokesman John Kirby, in an interview on CNN, said information shows Iran has not moved off its threat to attack Israel, including potentially through “proxies”.

The US is watching the situation closely and is prepared, though “hopefully it doesn’t come to that”, he added.

Global concern that Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip will escalate into an all-out regional conflict multiplied after the assassination last month of Haniyeh in Tehran, and of Fuad Shukr, a top commander from the Lebanese group Hezbollah, in Beirut.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has warned the regime of a “harsh response” for Haniyeh’s assassination, stressing it is Tehran’s duty to avenge the Palestinian resistance leader’s blood.

On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer issued a separate joint statement calling for de-escalation.

“We call on Iran and its allies to refrain from attacks that would further escalate regional tensions and jeopardise the opportunity to agree a ceasefire and the release of hostages,” it noted.

“The fighting must end now, and all hostages still detained by Hamas must be released. The people of Gaza need urgent and unfettered delivery and distribution of aid,” it added.

Tehran on Tuesday rejected calls by Western countries to back down from its threat to attack Israel.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has stressed that the calls from Paris, Berlin and London to exercise restraint “lack political logic and contradict principles of international law”.

Scholz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also held separate phone calls with with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday, the German and UK governments announced.

Starmer asked Pezeshkian to refrain from attacking Israel, saying that war was not in anyone’s interest, the prime minister’s office said.

Scholz “appealed to President Pezeshkian to do everything possible to prevent a further military escalation”, expressed “great concern about the danger of a regional conflagration in the Middle East” and said “the spiral of violence in the Middle East must be broken now”, his spokesman Wolfgang Buechner said in a statement.

President Joe Biden had stated he expects Iran to hold off attacking Israel if a Gaza ceasefire agreement is reached.

Asked by reporters during a visit to New Orleans on Tuesday whether a deal could prevent a promised attack, the president replied, “That’s my expectation.”