Top Iranian aide warns west over 'total war'

Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to trap the west into a total war across the Middle East that would have incalculable consequences for the region and the world, Iran’s most senior diplomat in the UK claimed yesterday.

- Patrick Wintour

In his first interview since Tehran launched an unprecedented missile and drone attack against Israel at the weekend, Mehdi Hosseini Matin also warned that if Israel ma de “another mistake” by launching an attack on Iran, there would be a response that was stronger, more severe and administered without the warning issued ahead of the weekend attack.

The salvo of more than 300 drones and missiles – almost all of which were intercepted by Israel and its allies or fell short of their targets – came in retaliation for a 1 April airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed several Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards officers. Israel’s most senior general, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi , has said the country will respond, but it remains unclear what form that would take.

“The response to the next mistake of the Zionist will not take 12 days’ time. It will be decided as soon as we see what the hostile regime has done,” Matin, Iran’s chargé airfares, told the Guardian in London. “It will be immediate, and without warning. It will be stronger and more severe.”

He ruled out Iran attacking civilian centres or building a nuclear weapon, even though he said Iran knew Israel was an undeclared nuclear state.