Iran, Syria top diplomats discuss Israel-Gaza war
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran’s foreign minister on Friday held talks with his Syrian counterpart after arriving in Damascus, focused on the war in Gaza as Israel continues to strike the enclave in retaliation for a Hamas attack last week.
“In the meeting, some bilateral and regional issues, especially developments in Palestine, were discussed and conferred on by the two top diplomats,” Iran’s state IRNA news agency reported about the meeting between Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Faisal Mekdad.
Before arriving in Syria, Amir-Abdollahian had visited Iraq and Lebanon, and called on the US in Beirut to “control” Israel’s actions in the region to prevent the war with Hamas from spilling over.
Last Saturday, hundreds of gunmen from the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a massive air, ground, and sea offensive and penetrated into Israeli territory, triggering Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare the next day that they were “embarking on a long and difficult war.”
At least 1,300 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israel since the war broke out, according to army figures, while over 1,900 Gazans, including 600 children, have been killed in Israeli missile strikes on the enclave, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
It marks the bloodiest escalation of the longstanding Israel-Palestine conflict in decades, fifty years since the Yom Kippur war.
Thousands of people in the Middle East on Friday demonstrated in support of the Palestinian cause, including in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and Jordan.
Hamas has called on “resistance fighters” in Arab countries to join its campaign dubbed “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” against Israel while the US has reiterated its support for Israel.
“In the meeting, some bilateral and regional issues, especially developments in Palestine, were discussed and conferred on by the two top diplomats,” Iran’s state IRNA news agency reported about the meeting between Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Faisal Mekdad.
Before arriving in Syria, Amir-Abdollahian had visited Iraq and Lebanon, and called on the US in Beirut to “control” Israel’s actions in the region to prevent the war with Hamas from spilling over.
Last Saturday, hundreds of gunmen from the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a massive air, ground, and sea offensive and penetrated into Israeli territory, triggering Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare the next day that they were “embarking on a long and difficult war.”
At least 1,300 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israel since the war broke out, according to army figures, while over 1,900 Gazans, including 600 children, have been killed in Israeli missile strikes on the enclave, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
It marks the bloodiest escalation of the longstanding Israel-Palestine conflict in decades, fifty years since the Yom Kippur war.
Thousands of people in the Middle East on Friday demonstrated in support of the Palestinian cause, including in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and Jordan.
Hamas has called on “resistance fighters” in Arab countries to join its campaign dubbed “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” against Israel while the US has reiterated its support for Israel.