Iran FM says terror groups have ‘finger on trigger’ if Israel does not halt offensive

By AFP 27 October 2023, 7:27 pm Edit

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian speaks during a joint press conference with his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib, in Beirut, Lebanon, October 13, 2023. (Hussein Malla/AP)

Iran’s foreign minister warns that Lebanese and Palestinian terror groups have their “finger on the trigger” in anticipation of an Israeli ground offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

“What I gathered from what I heard from them and the plans that they have — they have their finger on the trigger,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says.

Speaking to US National Public Radio from the United Nations, where he is attending a General Assembly session on the crisis, Amir-Abdollahian says the terrorists’ actions would be “much more powerful and deeper than what you’ve witnessed.

“Therefore I believe that if this situation continues and women and children and civilians are still killed in Gaza and the West Bank, anything will be possible,” he says.

Amir-Abdollahian insists, however, that the groups will decide on their own rather than at the behest of Iran.

“We don’t really want this conflict to spread out,” he says.