Arab governments reacted with mostly tepid condemnation of Israeli strikes overnight on Iran, expressing concern that a wider conflict could erupt, but avoiding strong language or taking any concrete action to protest the Israeli strikes.
Iranian officials and government media denied that Israeli strikes on several locations in the country did serious damage to infrastructure, claiming that Iranian air defenses had “stopped a number of Israeli missiles.”
Tehran did admit, however, that two soldiers were killed in strikes on Iranian military facilities. Iranian media showed video to rebut reports that major oil facilities had been hit in the strikes.
In the Arab world, both governments and media sided with Tehran to condemn the Israeli strikes, albeit avoiding strong language. The Saudi-owned Asharq Al Awsat newspaper posted a headline that Arab states “condemn Israeli strikes on Iran [as a] breach of international law.”
Saudi Arabia and Iran have been on the opposite sides of a number of Middle Eastern conflicts in recent years, most notably in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, and relations between the two countries remain strained.
The Saudi foreign ministry — in a statement carried by the Saudi press agency — called on “all parties to use the highest degree of self-restraint to avoid further escalation,” warning against the “dangers of continuing military conflicts in the region.”
Riyadh also urged international powerbrokers to exercise their responsibility to “lessen tensions” in the Middle East.
Saudi-owned al Arabia TV showed Iranians in Tehran expressing their views about the Israeli strikes, with one middle-aged man expressing relief the “strikes were over without having resulted in a major catastrophe,” and a young woman insisting that she “doesn’t think that the Israeli strikes [overnight] would ignite a larger conflict.”
In Cairo, the Egyptian foreign ministry issued a statement saying that Egypt is “extremely worried about the dangerous and widening escalation in the Middle East.”
Egypt and Iran have not had close relations in recent years, and they have remained strained since the government of former Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi was toppled more than a decade ago.
Egypt also condemned “any actions that threaten stability in the region.” Egypt replaced veteran Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri several months ago, and his replacement, Badr Abdel Atti, has taken a more strident tone against Israel than his predecessor.
Additionally, the Egyptian government recently replaced veteran intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, who had conducted numerous mediation sessions with Israeli officials in various conflicts in recent years, most notably the Gaza conflict that erupted in October of last year.
The Sultanate of Oman, which has traditionally enjoyed close ties with Iran, “strongly condemned the Israeli strikes on Iran,” calling them “a grievous breach of Iranian sovereignty.” The sultanate, which has conducted back-channel negotiations in recent years between Iran and Western governments, including the U.S., urged the international community to “take effective action to stop aggression and put an end to what it called the “outrageous encroachment of the territory of regional states.”
Qatar’s foreign ministry also condemned the Israeli strikes on Iran, urging “self-restraint and dialogue to avoid further destabilizing the region.”
Qatar, like Egypt and Oman, has acted as a mediator in conflicts involving Iran and its regional allies in recent years, most notably the recent and ongoing conflict in Gaza.
