‘Netanyahu trying to drag West into full-scale war in region’

London, IRNA – Iran’s chargé d'affaires in London says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has set a trap to drag the West into a full-scale war in West Asia, warning that such an occurrence will have incalculable consequences for the region and the world.

In an interview with the British daily Guardian, Seyyed Mehdi Hosseini Matin rejected the British Prime Minister's claim that Tehran had made a miscalculation with the operation "True Promise" against the Zionist regime.

Iran examined its actions very carefully and realized that Netanyahu had set up a trap not for Iran but for Western countries to drag them into a full-scale war, in a way that the world may not be able to bear its consequences, he explained.

The Iranian diplomat warned that the Islamic Republic will respond stronger, more severely and without any prior warning if the Zionist regime commits "another mistake" by attacking Iran again. "The response to the next mistake of the Zionists will not take 12 days. The action will be immediate and without warning”.

Hosseini Matin further emphasized that Iran, before its reciprocal strikes on the occupied territories, had asked the West to support a UN Security Council statement regarding the condemnation of the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, a move that was rejected by British Foreign Secretary, David Cameron.

Iran’s chargé d'affaires also exposed Cameron’s double standard citing his remarks during a television program on Monday where he admitted that if a hostile country razes the British consulate to the ground, it will face a strong response from London. But at the same time he claimed that Iran's attack was beyond the expected level and could have caused civilian casualties if missiles were not intercepted with the help of the United States and its allies (including the United Kingdom).

"Iranian forces did not target any populated area to prevent human casualties and did not attack government buildings and centers. It was a legitimate defense operation that was carried out with prior warnings, "Hosseini Matin said while countering Cameron’s remarks.

"Now the mission is accomplished and this is what we have announced publicly," he underlined, adding that Iran's punitive response has provided a good opportunity for Western countries to “show that they are rational actors and are not going to be caught in Netanyahu's trap and his goal to stay in power."

Hosseini Matin described the operation "True Promise" a demonstration of Iran's military power and said that the action was necessary to create deterrence so that no country would dare threaten Iran's security.