BRUSSELS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0World leaders reacted warily to U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Saturday that triggered concerns of a broader conflict. <\/p>\n
European leaders held emergency meetings and took measures to protect their citizens in the Middle East, with key leaders calling for a negotiated settlement between Iran and the United States. Australia and Canada were more open in their support for the strikes, while Russia and China responded with criticism. <\/p>\n
Britain, France and Germany called for a resumption of U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations and condemned Iranian attacks on countries in the region. They did not directly comment on the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a statement that their countries didn\u2019t take part in the strikes on Iran but are in close contact with the U.S., Israel and partners in the region.<\/p>\n
The three countries have led efforts to reach a negotiated solution over Iran\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe condemn Iranian attacks on countries in the region in the strongest terms. Iran must refrain from indiscriminate military strikes. We call for a resumption of negotiations and urge the Iranian leadership to seek a negotiated solution. Ultimately, the Iranian people must be allowed to determine their future,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
The strikes on Iran create a dilemma for Washington\u2019s allies. While European leaders firmly oppose Iran\u2019s nuclear program and crackdowns by its hard-line theocracy, they are loath to embrace unilateral military action by President Trump that could breach international law and unleash a broader conflict.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s strikes on Iran last June, and last month\u2019s U.S. invasion of Venezuela and arrest of its president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, caused a similar quandary.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry called the strikes \u201ca pre-planned and unprovoked act of armed aggression against a sovereign and independent U.N. member state.\u201d The ministry accused Washington and Tel Aviv of \u201chiding behind\u201d concerns about Iran\u2019s nuclear program while actually pursuing regime change.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s government said it was \u201chighly concerned\u201d about the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and called for an immediate halt to the military action and a return to negotiations. \u201cIran\u2019s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity should be respected,\u201d a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said.<\/p>\n
Concern of \u2018new, extensive\u2019 war<\/p>\n
It was unclear whether U.S. allies were given any advance warning of the attacks. The German government said it was given notice only Saturday morning. France\u2019s junior defense minister said France knew something would happen, but didn\u2019t know when.<\/p>\n
Macron called for an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting in response to the strikes in Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe outbreak of war among the United States, Israel and Iran has serious consequences for peace and international security,\u2033 Macron said earlier on Saturday. <\/p>\n
Starmer chaired a meeting of the government\u2019s emergency committee on Saturday morning. \u201cWe do not want to see further escalation into a wider regional conflict,\u201d a U.K. government spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
The German government\u2019s crisis management team also was due to meet on Saturday. <\/p>\n
\u201cNATO is closely following developments in Iran and the region,\u201d North Atlantic Treaty Organization spokesperson Allison Hart said. <\/p>\n
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his country supports the U.S. in its effort to stop Iran from obtaining an atomic bomb. He described Iran\u2019s current leadership as a destabilizing force and noted two attacks on Australian soil that were blamed on Tehran. <\/p>\n
Australia in August cut off diplomatic relations with Iran and expelled its ambassador after accusing it of orchestrating two antisemitic attacks in the country. <\/p>\n
Canada too, despite recent tensions with the U.S., expressed its support for the military action. \u201cThe Islamic Republic of Iran is the principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East,\u201d Prime Minister Mark Carney said. <\/p>\n
EU urges diplomacy<\/p>\n
Responding to the attack, the European Union\u2019s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, called the conflict in the Middle East \u201cperilous\u201d and said she was working with Israeli and Arab officials to pursue a negotiated peace.<\/p>\n
EU leaders issued a joint statement Saturday calling for restraint and regional diplomacy in hopes of \u201censuring nuclear safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint, to protect civilians, and to fully respect international law,\u201d said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa.<\/p>\n
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that he was concerned the failure of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran meant a \u201cnew, extensive war in the Middle East\u201d would happen. <\/p>\n
\u2018Totally irresponsible\u2019<\/p>\n
The Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons condemned the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in harsher words. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese attacks are totally irresponsible and risk provoking further escalation as well as increasing the danger of nuclear proliferation and the use of nuclear weapons,\u201d said its executive director, Melissa Parke. <\/p>\n
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim condemned Israeli strikes on Iran and accompanying U.S. military action, warning that the escalating conflict has pushed the Middle East to the \u201cedge of catastrophe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, during a phone call with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi on Saturday, condemned what he described as \u201cunwarranted attacks\u201d on Iran.<\/p>\n
Ciobanu and McNeil write for the Associated Press and reported from Warsaw and Brussels, respectively. AP writers Angela Charlton in Paris; Paolo Santalucia in Rome; Suman Naishadham in Madrid; Elise Morton and Krutika Pathi in London; Jamey Keaton in Geneva, Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Fatma Khaled in Cairo; Ken Moritsugu in Beijing and Adam Schreck in Bangkok contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRUSSELS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0World leaders reacted warily to U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Saturday that triggered concerns of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4160,972,157524,12987,2226,234,42,87,16333,47,43,157523,58038,17428,12650,25450,40,38,41,39,4374],"class_list":{"0":"post-315190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-attack","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-broad-conflict","11":"tag-country","12":"tag-france","13":"tag-government","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-iran","16":"tag-israeli-strike","17":"tag-middle-east","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-nuclear-negotiation","20":"tag-nuclear-program","21":"tag-peace","22":"tag-region","23":"tag-saturday","24":"tag-top-news","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topnews","27":"tag-topstories","28":"tag-u-s"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}