Iran’s foreign ministerwhose country backs the Palestinian group Hamas, said today that the opening of a “new front” against Israel in the Middle East will depend on the Jewish state’s “actions” in the Gaza Strip, which is being pounded by Israeli forces.

Iran has been in the spotlight for its unconditional support of Hamas for years.

However, Iranian leaders say that Tehran is not involved in the attack launched by this group last Saturday on Israel, the “sworn enemy” of the Islamic Republic.

The US has expressed fears of opening a second front in northern Israel, on the border with Lebanon, if Hezbollah, also an ally of Hamas and Iran, decides to intervene.

“Officials of some countries are asking us about the possibility of opening a new front (against Israel) in the region,” Hossein Amir Abdullahian said at a press conference he gave in Baghdad together with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. “Our clear answer to these possibilities is that it all depends on the actions of the Zionist regime in Gaza“, he added. “Even now, Israel’s crimes continue and no one in the region asks us for permission to open new fronts“, he added, according to the statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

After Iraq, Abdollahian will visit Lebanon.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raishi has called “the Muslim and Arab countries” to coordinate their actions to “stop the crimes” of Israel.

On Wednesday night, he spoke by phone with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.