Former NATO Secretary General George Robertson has called on Israel to exercise restraint in its response to the Iranian attack. Iran’s first direct attack was a “dramatic escalation”, but Tehran clearly did not want to score a hit.
“It seems clear that Iran has timed its attack in such a way that it can be contained by the Israelis,” the former British defense secretary said in Vienna on Monday. But Israel doesn’t see it that way, “and that’s why emotions are running high,” Robertson continued.
Not a ‘game changer’ in the conflict in the Middle East
But he does not believe the Iranian attack is a game changer in the Middle East conflict. “What happens next depends on how Israel responds. Like the rest of the world, I hope they will be careful in what they do,” said the MP from Britain’s opposition Labor Party.
At the same time, Robertson supported Israel’s right to defend itself. “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and is clearly in the crosshairs of many malign forces in the region.” Asked whether Israel could win a war against Iran, the former top NATO official said: “I don’t know. Morally, they are more than capable of defeating Iran.”
First Minister of Defense, then Secretary General of NATO
Robertson served in Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair’s first government as Defense Secretary from 1997, and two years later moved to the Defense Alliance headquarters in Brussels as NATO Secretary General. During his four-year term in office, NATO declared the alliance under Article 5 for the first and only time – as a result of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. Robertson is in Vienna at the invitation of NATO’s Contact Embassy Slovenia and will speak on Tuesday give a lecture at the Diplomatic Academy on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the defense alliance.
Source: Krone
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