European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned the Iranian attack on Israel on Sunday morning and called on all parties to exercise restraint.
Last night, Iran directly attacked Israel for the first time in history. According to the Israeli army, a total of about 300 drones and missiles were fired, but the vast majority of the projectiles were intercepted.
"I strongly condemn the blatant and unjustified attack on Israel," Von der Leyen wrote on social media. "I call on Iran and its proxies to immediately cease these attacks. All actors must now refrain from further escalation and work to restore stability in the region."
Following the major Iranian retaliatory attack, Israel reopened its airspace at 07:30 local time on Sunday morning. Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv is operating normally again, but there are still major delays, Israeli media report.
Israel had closed its airspace for seven hours due to the drones and missiles fired from Iran. Several other countries in the Middle East, such as Lebanon and Jordan, had also temporarily halted air traffic.
Emergency Security Council meeting
Following the attack, the United Nations Security Council will also hold an emergency meeting in New York on Sunday at 16:00 local time (22:00 Belgian time), announced the current President of the Security Council, Vanessa Frazier from Malta.
Israeli UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan has written to Frazier requesting an emergency hearing. Israel is demanding that the UN Security Council condemn the attack and designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation.
"The Iranian attack poses a serious threat to global peace and security and I expect the Council to use all means to take concrete action against Iran," Erdan said.
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According to Iran, this is a retaliation attack, dubbed 'Honest Promise', for the Israeli airstrike on an annex of the Iranian consulate in Damascus (Syria), which killed seven high ranking members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Iran said it invoked Article 51 of the UN Charter to justify the attack. That provision gives countries the right to self-defence if they are attacked.
Israel, meanwhile, has argued that the building in Damascus was a legitimate military target, as it claims it was used for operations by the Quds military unit of IRGC and meetings with their proxy groups like Hezbollah, which have been attacking Israel.
