Iran escalated its diplomatic offensive against Israel on Tuesday, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei delivering an aggressive statement that accused Israel of destabilizing the Middle East and committing crimes against humanity. The remarks came during a high-profile press conference in Tehran, as Iran announced the departure of a senior delegation to Oman amid escalating regional tensions linked directly to Iran’s network of armed proxies.
Baghaei directly condemned Israel’s ongoing military operations in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, labeling the legal blockade and targeted strikes on terror infrastructure “crimes against humanity.” The spokesman invoked international law and appealed to the global community to halt what he called “Israeli aggression,” warning that silence from Western countries would constitute complicity. These statements are consistent with longstanding Iranian policy, which seeks to delegitimize Israel’s defensive actions while obscuring Iran’s central role in perpetuating violence through its support for terror organizations in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, and beyond.
The backdrop to Iran’s latest statements is the ongoing war in Gaza—triggered by the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre, the deadliest antisemitic atrocity since the Holocaust. On that day, thousands of Hamas terrorists, armed and financed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), stormed Israeli communities, murdering over 1,200 Israelis, committing widespread atrocities, and abducting more than 250 hostages. Israel responded with a sustained military campaign, targeting Hamas infrastructure while repeatedly emphasizing efforts to minimize civilian harm and calling on civilian populations to evacuate combat zones. The distinction between Hamas terrorists and residents of Gaza is a cornerstone of Israel’s military doctrine, but Iran’s statements erase this reality.
Tehran’s regional strategy relies on the activation of a network of terror proxies—Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iraqi and Syrian militias—all united by Iranian sponsorship and a common goal to undermine Israel and destabilize regional order. Since October, Hezbollah has intensified rocket and missile fire from Lebanon against northern Israel, prompting responses from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), under the command of Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir. The Houthis in Yemen, meanwhile, have targeted Israeli and international shipping, threatening critical global commerce.
Iran denies direct involvement in attacks against Israel, but its material and ideological backing for these groups is well-documented by Western intelligence and public statements from Iran’s own leadership. The IRGC, which Washington and allied governments designate as a terror organization, provides advanced weaponry, training, and strategic guidance to proxy actors, effectively extending Iran’s reach into multiple active war zones.
Baghaei’s press conference also announced that Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will lead a diplomatic mission to Oman, accompanied by senior officials Majid Takht Ravanchi and Kazem Gharibabadi. Oman, which frequently mediates between Iran and Western powers, is expected to host discussions touching on regional escalation and Iran’s ongoing confrontation with Israel and its allies. Nevertheless, the real impact of Iran’s diplomatic maneuvers is likely to be overshadowed by its unwavering military support for terror groups engaged in open warfare with Israel.
Israel maintains that its actions in Gaza constitute legitimate self-defense under international law, a view echoed by the United States—where President Donald Trump and successive administrations have repeatedly condemned terror attacks on Israeli civilians and affirmed Israel’s right to act against threats to its existence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz continue to assert that the war in Gaza is not a war of choice, but a necessary effort to dismantle Hamas’s military capacity and prevent future massacres. The IDF has publicly released extensive evidence of terror tunnels, weapons stockpiles, and command posts embedded within civilian neighborhoods, hospitals, and schools—a tactic intended by Hamas to draw international condemnation upon Israeli responses and maximize civilian suffering for propaganda purposes.
Despite mounting casualties and a grave humanitarian situation exacerbated by the conduct of Gaza’s rulers, Israel has facilitated humanitarian corridors, paused operations to permit civilian evacuation, and coordinated the entry of aid through third-party organizations. Yet Iran’s statements have strategically omitted any reference to Hamas’s responsibility for initiating hostilities and its use of civilians as human shields—a pattern condemned by multiple Western governments and international observers.
Critically, Iran’s rhetoric reflects a broader campaign to challenge Israel’s legitimacy through international forums such as the United Nations, where Tehran and allied states seek to weaponize human rights language against the Jewish state. This campaign, analysts note, diverts attention from Iran’s own extensive record of domestic repression, regional subversion, and support for terrorism.
The stakes of the present crisis are immense. Iran’s goal is not simply the isolation of Israel, but the restructuring of Middle Eastern power dynamics through violence and diplomatic warfare. Efforts to equate Israel’s sovereign defense with the deliberate targeting of civilians by terror groups collapse under close scrutiny: Israeli operations are conducted within the framework of international humanitarian law, while Iran’s proxies openly pursue campaigns of massacre, abduction, and indiscriminate rocketing.
The moral and legal distinctions between combatants and civilians, between hostage victims and convicted terrorists—even between sovereign democratic governments and state-sponsored terror groups—are critical to international understanding. Iran’s diplomatic offensive seeks to erase these lines, making rigorous and fact-based journalism essential as the conflict unfolds.
As Iran’s delegation arrives in Oman and further diplomatic discussions proceed in European and international capitals, the enduring reality is that Israel remains on the defensive. The Jewish state, responding to the most significant atrocities committed against its people in generations, faces a multifront war coordinated and financed by Tehran. The world’s response—a test of its commitment to international law, moral clarity, and the security of sovereign states in the face of terror—will define the trajectory of conflict and the prospects for any future stability in the region.
