Tehran says G7 statement on Iran’s missile attack on Israel is ‘biased’

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DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran views the Group of Seven (G7) condemnation of its attack on Israel as “biased and irresponsible”, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Thursday.

Iran launched more than 180 missiles at Israel on Tuesday in what it said was retaliation for the killings of militant leaders and aggression in Gaza and Lebanon.

Abbas Nilforoushan, a deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was also killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut a week ago that killed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.

In a statement on Wednesday, Group of Seven (G7) leaders condemned Tehran’s attack, expressing “strong concern” over the crisis in the Middle East, but said a diplomatic solution was still viable and a region-wide conflict was in no one’s interest.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson “pointed to the definite responsibility of G7 countries, especially the United States, in increasing insecurity and instability in West Asia due to their armament, (and) financial and political support” of Israel, a ministry statement said.

The ministry also said it had summoned the German and Austrian ambassadors on Thursday after Berlin and Vienna summoned Iran’s representatives to condemn Tehran’s missile attack on Israel.

“We believe that if European states had taken effective and practical measures on time, including cutting off financial and weapons support, they would have cut short the killing and genocidal machine of the Zionist regime (Israel) by today and we would not have witnessed such tragedies,” the ministry said.

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom, Elwely Elwelly, Editing by Michael Georgy, Frances Kerry and Timothy Heritage)