British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock attended talks with top officials in Israel on Wednesday morning, in the wake of Iran’s aerial attack over the weekend.
The UK was among the nations that helped the Israeli military intercept a barrage of Iranian strikes on Israel. In the meetings, Cameron reinforced international pressure on Israel to not escalate tensions with Iran.
"It’s clear the Israelis are making a decision to act," he told reporters in Israel.
“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, on the hostages, back on getting the aid in, back on getting a pause in the conflict in Gaza.”
Cameron said he would discuss these points with both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. Meanwhile, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he held a “warm discussion” with Cameron and Baerbock.
Terror listing: During the meetings, Israel's Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, asked the visiting British and German foreign ministers to designate the Iranian government as a terror organization and impose sanctions on Iran's missile project.
"Now is our opportunity to change the region: call the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) by their real name - a terrorist organization and impose sanctions on Iran's missile project," he said according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
Earlier this week, Cameron told the BBC that “We’ve sanctioned the IRGC … in its entirety, and we’ll continue to look at what further steps we can do.” But the UK government has not declared the IRGC a terror group.