ABC correspondent Isabella Higgins who’s currently in Jerusalem, says that after Iran struck Israel last weekend, world leaders have been trying to avoid a tit-for-tat escalation of retaliatory strikes:
“For days, world leaders have been urging calm on Israel, amid fears a major retaliation would drag the region into a serious war.
“The Middle East is on the on a precipice … one miscalculation, one miscommunication, one mistake, could lead to the unthinkable – a full-scale regional conflict,” the U-N’s Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
The Israeli Government made it clear they would respond to last weekend’s unprecedented missile and drone attack from Iran.
Tehran said the barrage was a retaliatory strike in response to the killing of several Iranian leaders in a presumed Israeli air strike on an embassy in Damascus earlier this month — and the matter was now concluded.
The U-S, UK and European Union have been encouraging Israel to accept a package of international economic sanction in response to Iran’s attack and avoid a serious military reprisal.
Israel’s western partners felt this walked the tightrope of deterring Tehran, without further escalation.
But Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the nation would do what it felt it needed to defend itself.
“They also have all kinds of suggestions and advice, I appreciate it, but I want to make it clear — we will make our own decisions.”
These decisions appear to be playing out in front of us right now — and the West will be watching anxiously.”