Iran's top diplomat says risk of war in the Middle East 'has gone up,' blames US

The chances that flashpoints in the Middle East will ignite a conflict that engulfs the entire region have increased, Iran's top diplomat told ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz in an exclusive interview Tuesday.

«The scope of the war has become wider. This means that the danger of having a wider war in the region has gone up,» Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, blaming the U.S and Israel for the escalating tensions.

«If the U.S. today stops its backing — logistical and weapons, political and media support — of the genocidal war launched by Israel, then I can assure you that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu will not survive for 10 minutes,» he asserted. «So the key to solve the problem is in Washington before it is in Tel Aviv.»

Raddatz pressed the foreign minister on Iran's role in stoking the conflict, including its longstanding financial and military support of Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group that killed hundreds of civilians in Israel in its Oct. 7 attack.

«We consider Hamas a Palestinian liberation group that is standing against occupation,» Amir-Abdollahian said. «Of course, we never approved the killing of women and children, civilians anywhere in the world. We never support it.»

Raddatz also questioned the foreign minister on Iran's backing of the Houthis — the Yemeni rebel group responsible for dozens of recent attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, including U.S. ships.

The Pentagon has shared evidence of what it says is Iran's weapons smuggling network that supplies the Houthis, including details of a commando mission in the Arabian Sea that successfully intercepted Iranian-made missile components destined for Yemen but resulted in the death of two Navy