FirstFT: Iran told US it did not want Israel-Hamas war to escalate

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Today we have an interview with Iran’s top diplomat, who said Tehran had told the US through back channels that it did not want the Israel-Hamas war to spread further, but it also warned Washington that regional conflict could be unavoidable if Israeli attacks on Gaza continued.

“Over the past 40 days, messages have been exchanged between Iran and the US, via the US interests section at the Swiss embassy in Tehran,” foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told the Financial Times, while ruling out the possibility of direct talks between the two foes.

“In response to the US,” he added, “we said that Iran does not want the war to spread, but due to the approach adopted by the US and Israel in the region, if the crimes against the people of Gaza and the West Bank are not stopped, any possibility could be considered, and a wider conflict could prove inevitable.”

Iran, the main supporter of anti-Israel Islamist militants in the region, has said it was not informed in advance of Hamas’s devastating attack on Israel on October 7 — a position that US officials have confirmed. Read more from the interview.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: The EU releases October inflation figures and the UK has retail sales data.

• Central banks: European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde delivers the keynote address at the Frankfurt European Banking Congress.

• Erdoğan in Germany: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan meets German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin.

• Results: Generali and Nationwide Building Society report.

Five more top stories

1. Convicted mining tycoon Beny Steinmetz has been found to have links with GOI Energy, the company chosen by Italy’s government to take over the country’s largest oil refinery from its Russian owner. The connection to Steinmetz, who was found guilty of corruption in Romania and Switzerland in 2020 and 2021, raises questions over the sale of an asset Rome deems strategic.

2. British ministers’ pledge to build 40 new hospitals by 2030 commands “zero confidence”, the influential House of Commons public accounts committee has warned. The committee said it had “extreme concerns” over progress on the New Hospital Programme, which was at the heart of the Conservative party’s 2019 election manifesto but has been beset by spiralling costs and inflation.

3. Former UK home secretary Suella Braverman has lashed out at Rishi Sunak’s plan to remove asylum seekers to Rwanda. Braverman said the prime minister’s proposal was doomed to fail unless emergency legislation was introduced that expressly overrode international human rights and refugee law. Read more on the plan’s legal challenges.

4. Oil and gas companies face virtually no extra borrowing costs compared with less polluting groups, despite efforts by climate organisations to encourage banks and big investors to reduce their lending to the fossil fuel sector. The finding from S&P Global Ratings “shows lenders are not really baking in premiums for ESG-related factors”, said Michael Altberg, a managing director at the agency.

5. More than half of low-income UK households with mortgages have fallen behind on one or more of their bills, according to a survey by the charitable Joseph Rowntree Foundation, highlighting the combined pressure of rising interest rates and rapid inflation on finances.

How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz. And for more, tune in to the FT’s Biz Quiz airing live on Saturday. A recording will be available following the event.

The Big Read

Janet Truncale, the new global chief executive at EY, is the first woman to lead a Big Four firm. She faces the formidable challenge of uniting the 395,000-person group after the collapse of Project Everest, a plan to spin off the firm’s consulting and tax advice business. Rivals Deloitte, PwC and KPMG are keenly watching in the hope of taking advantage of any turmoil as Truncale picks her executive team and works on a new strategy.

We’re also reading . . . 

Chart of the day

How worried should Democrats be about the polls? A year out from the US presidential election, a consistent finding is that they are going backwards with non-white voters. While the erosion in President Joe Biden’s support among black voters may sound surprising, almost a third of African-Americans who voted in 2020 describe themselves as conservative. A large majority of them backed Donald Trump.

Take a break from the news

FT senior science writer Clive Cookson selects his favourite books of the year. On his list are titles that will take you on a cosmic mission, explore the brain’s impressive balancing act and impart scientific speculation about white holes.

Additional contributions from Emily Goldberg