PM calls on ‘all peace-loving countries’ to back US efforts against Iran

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is appealing to “all peace-loving countries” to support American efforts to halt what he called escalating Iranian provocations.

Speaking Thursday at a reception for the New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Netanyahu says that “in the last 24 hours, Iran has intensified its aggression against the United States and against all of us,” adding that “Israel stands by the United States and its military.”

He speaks shortly after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard shot down a US surveillance drone in the Strait of Hormuz. Heightened tensions in recent weeks have raised fears of war between the two countries.

Israeli officials have welcomed Washington’s mounting pressure on Tehran, but steered clear of calling for a conflagration that might put Israel in the line of fire.

— AP