David Cameron Condemns ‘Scale’ Of Iran’s ‘Reckless And Dangerous’ Attack On Israel
Foreign Minister Lord David Cameron criticised the “scale” of Iran’s attack on Israel as “reckless and dangerous” while acknowledging that Britain “take very strong action” in retaliation if “a hostile nation” were to “flatten” a UK consulate.
Iran claimed that the mass drone attack it launched at Israel on Saturday was retaliation to an Israeli airstrike on an Iranian consulate building in Syria on April 1, which killed seven Revolutionary Guard officers, including a senior commander.
Israel detailed that Iran launched 170 drones, over 30 cruise missiles as well as 120 ballistic missiles during its attack but that 99 percent of the incoming barrage was intercepted and destroyed by Israel and allied warplanes.
The attack led to international calls for de-escalation, including from Cameron and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Cameron was appearing on Sky News Monday morning when host Kay Burley pressed him on Iran’s claim that it was acting in self defence when it launched a barrage of drones towards Israel Saturday.
Cameron: “[It was] a reckless and dangerous thing for Iran to have done, and I think the whole world can see. All these countries that have somehow wondered, well, you know, what is the true nature of Iran? It’s there in black and white.”
Burley: “What would Britain do if a hostile nation flattened one of our consulates?”
Cameron: “Well, we would take, you know, we would take a very strong action.”
Burley: “And Iran would say that that’s what they did?”
Cameron: “Well, what they did, as I said, was a massive attack.”
Burley: “So they were right to respond, but they overreacted, is that what you’re saying?”
Cameron: “What I’m saying is that the attack they carried out was on a very large scale, much bigger than people accepted.”
Burley: “But do they have a right to respond?”
Cameron: “Countries have a right to respond when they feel they’ve suffered an aggression. Of course they do. But look at the scale of that response. Had those weapons not been shot down, there could have been thousands of casualties, including civilian casualties. I think that’s a really important point to take into account.”
Watch above on Sky News.
