Urgent international calls for restraint appear to be falling on deaf ears as the world braces for intensifying conflict in the Middle East.
All eyes are on the White House, as U.S. President Donald Trump weighs carrying out direct military strikes on Iran. Such an act would represent a dramatic deepening of U.S. involvement in what has thus far been limited to attacks between Iran and U.S. ally Israel.
The Kremlin warned Thursday that U.S. intervention in Iran would set off a “terrible spiral of escalation,” while Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told Reuters that the world is “millimeters” away from nuclear catastrophe. Russia is currently mired in its own war in Ukraine, which also involves a fight over a major nuclear power plant.
In the U.K., Prime Minister Keir Starmer chaired an emergency Cobra meeting — the country’s national crisis management system — as his government works to withdraw the families of staff at the British embassy in Tel Aviv.
The high-level intelligence meeting followed Starmer’s presence at the G7 summit in Canada, during which he joined other leaders of the group in reiterating their “commitment to peace and stability.”
