Middle East crisis live: Senior figures in Iran warn of stronger response if Israel retaliates

Al Jazeera also reports that on state TV in Iran, deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani said that his country would not wait 12 days to respond to another Israeli attack, but would retaliate in “a matter of seconds.”

The Jerusalem Post reported that as part of the drill “both combat and cyber and technology forces deployed throughout the North, on every separate front, to simulate readiness for an all-out hybrid digital and kinetic war.”

Al Jazeera also reports that on state TV in Iran, deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani said that his country would not wait 12 days to respond to another Israeli attack, but would retaliate in “a matter of seconds.”

Israel ’s foreign minister has said he is “leading a political attack against Iran ” and has written to 32 countries “demanding that sanctions be imposed on the Iranian missile project and that the Revolutionary Guards be declared a terrorist organization.”

In a separate call with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Wang said Beijing was willing to work with Riyahd to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East, according to Xinhua.

The calls followed statements by China’s UN representative to an extraordinary meeting of the security council yesterday, which condemned Israel’s airstrike on Iran’s Syria consulate, which he suggested had significantly escalated the conflict as many international parties had warned.