From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, May 14, 2025
In Japan, Sa’ar slams Iranian axis, says Israel will expand Abraham Accords when war ends
Nava Freiberg is The Times of Israel's deputy diplomatic correspondent.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says Israel won’t accept threats from Iran and its regional proxies, and declares Israel will expand the Abraham Accords normalization agreements when the war in Gaza ends, during a press conference in Tokyo this morning.
“Since October 7th, Israel has been attacked by the evil axis of Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the Shia militias in Iraq. We were attacked on seven fronts and we didn’t initiate on any of these fronts… we retaliated to the attacks,” says the foreign minister to a group of some 80 reporters, in a transcript of the meeting shared by his office.
“Israel aspires to expand the Abraham Accords and circle of peace and normalization in the Middle East. And we will do it when this war will be over! But we cannot accept the ongoing threats to our security,” Sa’ar says.
“Iran must be prevented from obtaining nuclear weapons. The international community must take firm action to make sure of this,” Sa’ar continues, saying, “We thank Japan for its consistent and responsible approach in the International Atomic Energy Agency.”
After being informed that sirens were going off in Israel in response to a Houthi missile attack from Yemen, Sa’ar says, “During this very press conference… millions of Israelis are now running to shelters… I believe this is war crimes. Because it is targeting civilians.”
Sa’ar also thanks US President Donald Trump “for helping secure the release of our soldier and dual Israeli-American citizen Edan Alexander,” who was freed from Hamas captivity on Monday.
Yesterday, Sa’ar told Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya that Israel’s delegation to Doha this week will try “to reach a framework for the release of hostages, as we had sought from the beginning — based on the Witkoff framework.”
“It is impossible to continue living alongside Hamas’s terror state… They continue to hold our hostages in order to dictate conditions that would allow them to continue their war against Israel,” he said.
He also called on Japan to reject any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, saying, “Unilateral steps against Israel will require an Israeli response. This would corner Israel. I call on Japan to reject such ideas, which would only push peace further away.”
Iran, “like Hamas, they hold a fanatical religious ideology… After what they’ve already done… without nuclear weapons, one can only imagine what they would do if, God forbid, they got them. This must not be allowed,” he told Iwaya.
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