The prime minister tells President Masoud Pezeshkian he is “deeply concerned” amid growing fears Iran will retaliate against Israel over the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Sir Keir Starmer has spoken with Iran’s president as part of international efforts to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East.
The 30-minute phone conversation with Masoud Pezeshkian followed a joint statement issued by the UK, US, France, and Germany, which called on Iran and its allies to “stand down its ongoing threats of a military attack against Israel”.
There are growing fears Iran will retaliate against Israel over the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the country, prompting the US to order the deployment of a guided missile submarine to the Middle East.
During his call with Mr Pezeshkian, Sir Keir said he was “deeply concerned by the situation” and called on all parties to “de-escalate and avoid further regional confrontation”, according to a readout of the conversation from Downing Street.
The prime minister also said there was a “serious risk of miscalculation and now was the time for calm and careful consideration”, calling on Iran to “refrain from attacking Israel” and saying that “war was not in anyone’s interests”.
The readout continued: “The prime minister underlined his commitment to an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages and increasing humanitarian aid to Gaza.
“He added the focus should be on diplomatic negotiations, to achieve those outcomes.”
Sir Keir also raised the cases of foreign detainees in Iran, and the two leaders agreed that “constructive dialogue…was in both countries’ interests”.
“The prime minister added that could only be furthered if Iran ceased its destabilising actions including threats against individuals in the UK and did not further aid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”, Downing Street said.
Call ‘very rare occurrence’
Sky’s Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall said it was a “very rare occurrence” for a British prime minister to speak to an Iranian leader and it “shows the value” of having a British embassy in Tehran – not something many countries, including the US, have.
In the call, Sir Keir was able to push the message Western leaders are using “as the carrot… to bring Iran down from the edge”, Bunkall said.
That is to say “look, if we can try and push forward with a ceasefire deal and ceasefire talks are due to take place on Thursday, then anything that you do in between that, or even after that, runs the risk of collapsing those talks”, he added.
In the earlier joint statement, which also included Italy, the world leaders said there was “no further time to lose” in reaching a ceasefire and securing the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.