The risk of a clash with Russia escalating into a full-blown conflict is much higher than that of a war with Iran in the Middle East becoming a wider conflict, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday in a televised interview to a French news channel.
"I am not really sure there is a risk of a full-scale escalation [in the Middle East], like we are being told … But I believe that the risk of a full-scale escalation would be much higher in case of globalization of the conflict with Russia than in a globalized conflict with Iran," he warned.
Sarkozy spoke after US media reported that President Joe Biden was worried about Iran retaliating against Israel for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The Shiite movement confirmed that Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut on Friday.