THE world reacted with dismay and alarm to the unprovoked US-Israeli attacks on Iran that began on Saturday, and Iranian retaliation hitting US military assets in Gulf states.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said he condemned “military escalation in the Middle East. The use of force by the United States and Israel against Iran, and the subsequent retaliation by Iran across the region, undermine international peace and security.”

UN security council responses were split, with countries not aligned with the United States condemning it but those part of Nato blaming Iran for trying to defend itself.

China called for an immediate halt to all military operations. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Beijing was “highly concerned about the military attacks by the US and Israel on Iran. Iran’s national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity should be respected.”

Russia’s security council deputy chairman Dmitri Medvedev, a former president, said “the peacemaker has once again showed his face,” in a sarcastic reference to US President Donald Trump.

“All negotiations with Iran are a cover operation. No-one doubted it. No-one really wanted to negotiate anything,” he added, pointing out that the US had again (as it did last year) used talks as a ruse to prepare for a sneak attack. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also condemned the “unprovoked armed attack” on Iran by the US and Israel.

The other two security council members (leaving aside the actual aggressor, the United States) Britain and France joined Germany issued a statement saying they “condemn Iranian attacks on countries in the region in the strongest terms,” referring to Iran’s retaliatory strikes on US bases in Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. They accused Iran of “indiscriminate” attacks, but did not condemn the US or Israel for starting the war or mention Israel’s bombing of an Iranian girls’ primary school, killing over 100.

Canada said it supported Israel’s “right to defend itself,” but Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide pointed out that “the attack is described by Israel as a preventive strike, but it is not in line with international law. Preventive attacks require an immediately imminent threat.”

The only leader of a Nato state to condemn the war was Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who said: “We reject the unilateral military action of the United States and Israel, which represents an escalation and contributes to a more uncertain and hostile international order.”

Cuba “condemns in the strongest terms the attacks perpetrated on February 28 by the United States and Israel, which violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations and international law.

“Cuba joins the international calls to immediately stop this aggression, which has caused an unknown number of civilian casualties, including children, and to prevent an escalation promoted by known hegemonic interests and declared intentions of domination through the use of military force that would drag other countries in the region into the conflict, with unpredictable consequences,” it added.

Venezuela’s government “condemns and deeply regrets the choice of the military option through attacks on the Islamic Republic of Iran, amid ongoing diplomatic efforts and negotiations.”

Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood Albusaidi, who had been handling negotiations between the United States and Iran on its nuclear power programme, said he was “dismayed.

“Active and serious negotiations have yet again been undermined. Neither the interests of the United States nor the cause of global peace are well served by this.”

Pakistan condemned the “unwarranted attacks” on Iran, while the European Union, India, Brazil and Vietnam were among those calling for maximum restraint from all sides.

Gulf states hosting US military bases from which the attacks on Iran were launched condemned Iran for striking targets on their territory.