UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron arrived in Israel on Wednesday for talks where he is expected to repeat his warning against any response to the recent missile attack by Iran.
Lord Cameron will meet Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has vowed to retaliate to Iran’s weekend attack.
As Breitbart News reported, the state-on-state strike by more than 300 missiles and drones from Iran caused only modest damage in Israel as most were shot down by its Iron Dome defence system and with help from the U.S., Britain, France and Jordan.
The BBC reports the UK’s most senior diplomatic envoy will push Israel to reign in the scope and scale of its response over fears it could lead to a wider war across the Middle East, repeating a previous message to the Jewish state not to resort to force.
He called on Israel’s government to be “smart as well as tough.”
Speaking to reporters shortly after arriving in Jerusalem on Wednesday morning, Lord Cameron said he was there to “show solidarity after that appalling attack by Iran,” adding:
It’s right to have made our views clear about what should happen next, but it’s clear the Israelis are making a decision to act. We hope they do so in a way that does as little to escalate this as possible. And in a way that, as I said yesterday, is smart as well as tough.
But the real need is to refocus back on Hamas, back on the hostages, back on getting the aid in, back on getting a pause in the conflict in Gaza.
Lord Cameron is one of several Western foreign ministers who are expected to visit Israel in the coming days to convey that message in person – he briefly met German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock over breakfast on Wednesday, the BBC report details.
The foreign secretary is also due to meet Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Foreign Affairs Minister Israel Katz, and will hold talks with Mohammad Mustafa, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority.
After delivering his message of appeasement and restraint to Israel, Lord Cameron will re-board his flight and travel to a gathering of G7 ministers on the Italian resort island of Capri.