UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he had spoken with Iranian authorities and urged them to get the Hamas movement ruling in the Gaza Strip to release the hostages and to keep the Lebanese Hezbollah movement from interfering in the conflict with Israel.
“I spoke to Iran and asked for two things. Firstly, to put pressure on Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release the hostages, and secondly, to tell Hezbollah that they should not create a situation in which this conflict completely overwhelms Lebanon," he said in an interview with CNN.
Guterres expressed concern about the threat of the conflict spreading to the West Bank and Lebanon, which, according to him, may not survive a large-scale Hezbollah attack on Israel.
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Gutteres found it difficult to assess how Iran responded to his demands.
“I don’t know. They’ve always said they had nothing to do with what happened, but they publicly talk about the risk of the conflict expanding. It’s always very mysterious,” he said.
