Johnathan Paoli
President Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned the recent Israel-Iran conflict, but put the blame on the ongoing failure to stop the war between Israel and Palestine, a warning that South Africa has raised since last year, he said.
Speaking on the sidelines of the ANC’s election campaign south of Johannesburg on Sunday, Ramaphosa said the concerns surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict has clearly escalated into a larger field of military action.
“We did warn at a very early stage that unless the challenges and the war between Israel and Palestine in Gaza is handled with care and with great wisdom to ensure that there is a ceasefire and humanitarian assistance, the war would soon escalate beyond the borders of Israel, and it would engulf countries in the Middle East,” the President said.
His comments come after Iran fired over 300 drones and missiles into Israel on Saturday, in retaliation for an attack on its consulate in Syria two weeks ago which killed 13 people, including senior commanders.
Ramaphosa said the strikes by Iran were unhelpful and called on both Israel and Iran to refrain from escalating the violence.
“The world doesn’t need a conflict that can escalate to these levels. South Africa has warned about this and we are once again saying that all actors desist from escalating this type of violence. It should not happen and we should not lose lives,” the President said.
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation said that it remained concerned at developments in the area following the retaliatory attack by Iran.
“As the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres has stated there is a very real danger of a devastating region-wide escalation. In this context, South Africa emphasizes that all parties must exercise the utmost restraint and avoid any act that would escalate tensions in a particularly fragile region,” the departmental spokesperson Clayson Monyela said.
Monyela said South Africa continuously stressed that irrespective of whether states believe that their use of force is lawful, it is never wise to resort to war as inevitably, it is ordinary people who bore the brunt of the conflict.
The proliferation of global conflict would continue if the international community did not commit itself to the ending of war in the region and the establishment of conditions under which just and respect for international law could be maintained, Monyela said.
“As long as there is impunity for unlawful acts, war and justice will continue”.
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