Iran’s Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali said on Tuesday that Israel doesn’t have the capability to unleash a regional war across the Middle East.
Jalali said as quoted by state news agency TASS, “Israel, so to speak, is incapable of fighting against a small territory like Gaza and a small group like Hamas. So, does it want to start a regional war? I don’t think the Israeli regime has that kind of capability and that kind of power.”
Iran will “show resilience” in case a conflict with Israel breaks out, the ambassador said.
Jalali stated, “We have never started a war. However, if someone carries out an act of aggression against us, we will certainly be ready to show resilience.”
Iran, a longtime supporter of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, has been escalating its rhetoric against Israel since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict on October 7.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that no one could stop the “resistance forces” if Israel continued to commit “crimes” in Gaza.
Iran refers to a group of different proxy militias it backs across the region, like Hezbollah in Lebanon and militias in Iraq and Syria, as being part of the “resistance axis.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian had warned Israel of escalation in the Middle East if it did not stop its aggression against Gaza. He said: “If the Zionist aggressions do not stop, the hands of all parties in the region are on the trigger.”
“The responsibility for the possible opening of new fronts of resistance in the region and any escalation of today’s war directly falls on the US and the Zionist regime,” he added.
