UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged "urgent de-escalation" in the Middle East, reported the Associated Press, quoted by BTA.
A spokesman for the world body's chief, Stephane Dujarric, said Guterres made the call in a telephone conversation with Iran's foreign minister following Tehran's attack on Israel late last week. According to Dujarric, the Secretary General spoke with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian on Monday.
At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Sunday, Guterres warned that "The Middle East is on the brink" and that it is time for him to step back from the abyss over which he has risen.
World leaders urged Israel not to retaliate after Iran fired hundreds of drones and missiles in an unprecedented operation late last week that brought the Middle East one step closer to the outbreak of a regional war, the Associated Press reported. The attack came less than two weeks after two Iranian generals were killed in a suspected Israeli strike on Tehran's consulate in Syria.
Tensions in the region have risen since another war between Israel and "Hamas" broke out on October 7. Then "Hamas" and Islamic Jihad, two radical groups backed by Iran, launched an attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing 1,200 people in the Jewish state and abducting 250. Israel responded with an offensive in Gaza that caused widespread destruction in the Palestinian enclave and claimed more than 33,800 lives, according to local health officials.