United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres has warned the Middle East is “on the brink” of a devastating all-out conflict as Israel vowed to “exact a price” against Iran following its missile attack. The unprecedented attack by Tehran, which it said was in retaliation against a strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria earlier this month, has raised fears over the Israel-Hamas war spiralling into a wider regional conflagration. “The Middle East is on the brink. The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict,” Secretary-General Guterres told a UN Security Council meeting on Sunday 14 April. “Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate.”