Iran-Israel attack latest news: David Cameron calls Iran’s attack a ‘failure’ as fears of escalation rise around the globe

Foreign Secretary David Cameron said the attack had been a defeat for Iran and echoed President Joe Biden, who urged Israel to ‘take the win.’

Cameron said Britain’s message to Israel is: ‘Now is the time to be smart as well as tough, to think with head as well as heart.’

He added that British fighter jets had played an ‘important part’ in shooting down some of the more than 350 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones fired at Israel from Iran, but did not provide details.

Billboards have popped up in Tehran depicting launching missiles as Iran seemingly celebrates its 350-missile attack on Israel.

The text on one banner in Arabic reads ‘the honest [person’s] promise’ and in Persian ‘Israel is weaker than a spider’s web’, while anohter poster depicted missiles launching from a representation of the map of Iran coloured with the Iranian flag.

• Washington sent ‘a series of direct communications through the Swiss channel’ prior to the attack, a senior administration official said
• Washington and Tehran have not had diplomatic relations for decades, with Switzerland represents the US in Iran and communications go via ‘the Swiss channel’
• The Swiss foreign ministry refused Monday to divulge what actions the country had taken in connection with Iran’s weekend attack on Israel, but US and Iranian officials alluded to the important role Switzerland was playing as an intermediary

‘Instead of making accusations against Iran, [Western] countries should blame themselves and answer to public opinion for the measures they have taken against the … war crimes committed by Israel’ in its war in Gaza, Nasser Kanaani, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, told the BBC.

Kanaani added that Western countries ‘should appreciate Iran’s restraint in recent months.’

Germany summoned Iran’s ambassador on Monday morning following Tehran’s weekend missile and drone attack against Israel, according to a foreign ministry spokesperson in Berlin.

‘The meeting is currently taking place,’ added the spokesperson.

• UN chief Antonio Guterres has declared that the Middle East is ‘on the brink’ and that those living in the region are facing ‘a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict.’
• He told the emergency meeting, which was called after Iran‘s attack: ‘Regional – and indeed global – peace and security are being undermined by the hour. Neither the region nor the world can afford more war.’
• Guterres added that acts of reprisal involving the use of force are barred under international law after Iran’s attack on Israel, while the US warned the Security Council it would work to hold Tehran accountable at the UN.

Senior US defence officials have told NBC News that they worry an Israeli response to the attacks would be ‘frenetic’ and ‘catastrophically escalatory’.

Three senior administration officials have also told the outlet that Biden had privately expressed concern that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to pull the US into the conflict.

Biden spoke with Netanyahu in a late-night phone call on Saturday and made it clear that US forces would not participate any further.

A graphical representation of air traffic shows airspace over Iran and the neighbouring Middle East countries at 1am yesterday following Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel:

Some African governments are urging Israel and Iran to avoid an escalation of the conflict.

While Iran’s attack on Israel ‘represents a real and present threat to international peace and security,’ Israel should ‘show utmost restraint’ in its response, President William Ruto of Kenya said in a statement posted on social platform X.

The warring parties ‘must exercise the utmost restraint and avoid any act that would escalate tensions in a particularly fragile region,’ South Africa’s government said in a statement Sunday.

Nigeria’s Foreign Ministry urged Israel and Iran to ‘reflect on the universal commitment to peaceful resolution of conflicts.’

Professor Gerald Steinberg, an expert in conflict management and founder of Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, said: ‘To deter future Iranian attacks, Israel must exact a significant cost – perhaps by targeting more key IRGC officials or destroying the bases where the attacks were launched from.

‘The response will also need to be negotiated with the US,’ he said, but added that this would give the Biden administration ‘influence over Israeli decision on responding to Iran.

The powerful short-range defence system was used to shoot down the incoming barrage of drones, cruise missiles and rockets fired from Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, and has also been working in full-force to handle attacks throughout the six-month war against Hamas.

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• French President Emmanuel Macron said Iran’s attack on Israel was a ‘disproportionate response’ to the bombing of its consulate in the Syrian capital, Damascus
• Macron told French media BFMTV abd RMC that France had carried out ‘interceptions’ of missiles that Iran aimed at Israel at the request of Jordan.
• He added that France will try to ‘convince Israel that we must not respond by escalating.’

‘It was a terrifying [night], the children didn’t sleep all night, they came to our bed, slept with us,’ Moran, 41, from Jerusalem, told the BBC.

‘We have the most powerful army in the world, and we believe it will be okay. I wish we would attack, but we can’t because of the US.’

‘It’s very possible that Israel will respond to the direct attack with a series of covert operations within Iranian borders, telegraphing Israel’s deterrence capabilities, while highlighting Iranian exposure toIsrael’s military and intelligence prowess,’ said Avi Melamed, a former Israeli intelligence official.

Mr Melamed, who went on to serve as deputy and then as senior Arab affairs adviser to two Jerusalem mayors, added: ‘These operations are likely to start in the near future.’

Airlines have suspended flights due to Middle East tensions.

Lufthansa, KLM, easyJet, Iberia Express, Air Canada, Air India, and Wizz Air have suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv today, while Finnair suspended operations in Iranian airspace until further notice.

Flights to Beirut and Tehran remain impacted for many airlines.

Leaders of the G7 – including UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – also held talks on Sunday in which they ‘unequivocally’ condemned Iran’s attack on Israel and warned that the risk of an ‘uncontrollable regional escalation’ must be avoided.

In a joint statement following an urgent call, countries including the UK and US said they ‘stand ready to take further measures now and in response to further destabilising initiatives’.

Russia said it was very worried by the rise in tensions in the Middle East following Iran’s mass drone and missile attack on Israel.

‘We are extremely concerned about the escalation of tensions in the region,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. ‘We call on all countries in the region to exercise restraint.’

‘Further escalation is in no one’s interests. Therefore, of course, we advocate that all disagreements be resolved exclusively by political and diplomatic methods,’ Peskov said.

Israel is ‘not in the business of revenge’ but will defend itself against ‘this Iranian threat’, a spokesperson has said.

Orly Goldschmidt told Sky News: ‘We are listening very carefully to our allies, we’re taking what they’re saying into consideration but, at the end of the day, we will have to defend ourselves against this Iranian threat.’

‘Not revenge, because we’re not in the business of revenge but we want to make sure that they are deterred. What happened on Saturday cannot happen on a daily basis, on a weekly basis.

‘We have to understand that it’s not a new normal that can happen in the Middle East, we have to make sure that the Iranians understand and they are deterred.’

UK foreign minister David Cameron on Monday urged Israel to ‘avoid escalatation’ following Iran’s missile attack, and instead urged Israeli authorities to focus on freeing hostages held by Hamas.

Cameron told Times Radio that he echoed US President Joe Biden’s plea for Israel to ‘take the win and then move on to focus on how to eradicate Hamas in Gaza and how to get those hostages free.

‘We’re very anxious to avoid escalation and to say to our friends in Israel, “it’s a time to think with head as well as heart and in many ways this is a double defeat for Iran”,’ he added.

Israel if considering whether to ‘go big’ in its retaliation against Iran despite fears of an all-out conflict in the Middle East, according to reports, after the Islamic republic launched hundreds of missiles at the Jewish State over the weekend.

The country’s war cabinet met on Sunday to decide between military retaliation, or to respond to Iran’s attack in a more measured way, according to the Financial Times – citing an Israeli figure familiar with government deliberations.

Nationalist figures in Israel called on the five-person cabinet – which includes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – to choose the former, despite fears from allies of a ‘catastrophic escalation’ leading to a wider Middle East war and World War Three.

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Welcome to MailOnline’s live blog, where we will bring you the latest news and updates on the conflict between Israel and Iran following Iran’s 350-missile blitz attack over the weekend.