Tension escalates again in the Middle East. This Friday, Israel carried out its first military response to the offensive launched by Iran with more than 300 drones and rockets last Saturday.
The retaliation was with a “narrow and limited” attack on a military base in Isfahan, one of the strongholds from where the Tehran regime had launched its air operation.
The operation was reported by the American press, amidst controversy. Iran denied the attack: first it said that anti-aircraft defenses had shot down several drones and then it limited itself to saying that they were “several flying objects.” And, until now, neither the Israeli government nor the Pentagon had officially recognized the operation.
The US network CBS News cited two military sources to maintain that at least one Israeli missile hit Iran. In turn, the international agency Reuters reported attacks by alleged drones. Finally, the New York Times confirmed the military attack with two Israeli and three Iranian defense officials.
When there were still no details about the detonations, numerous commercial flights were diverted from the region’s airspace. Dubai-based airlines such as Emirates and FlyDubai began diverting their flights over western Iran around 4:30 a.m. local time. No formal reasons were disclosed, although local warnings to pilots suggested the airspace may have been closed.
The semi-official Iranian agency Fars – linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a group considered terrorist by the United States – reported explosions over Isfahan, near its international airport. That city, located about 340 kilometers south of the capital Tehran, is home to a major air base for the Iranian military, as well as sites associated with its nuclear program.
Iran fired its air defense batteries in the local morning after reports of explosions near Isfahan, state news agency IRNA reported.
There was no confirmation that the country was under widespread attack. However, tensions remain high across the Middle East following Iran’s unprecedented missile and drone offensive against Israel.
In fact, Isfahan was one of Iran’s drone and missile launch sites in its April 13 attack on Israel. In turn, Tehran has consistently accused Israel of attacks and sabotage activities against its nuclear and military sites in the past, including Isfahan, home to some of its major missile and nuclear enrichment facilities.
The official Iranian TV, in that sense, pointed out that the nuclear sites in the Iranian province of Isfahan did not suffer damage. He also reported that three drones were observed in the sky over Isfahan. And that the air defense system was activated and “destroyed these drones in the sky.”
The Iranian authorities suspended flights in at least three cities this Friday, including Tehran, after loud explosions were heard in the center of the country.
The Iranian military has indicated that it will not respond to the attack, which caused no damage. Thanks to our surveillance, flying objects were shot at, the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Army, Major General Abdul Rahim Mousavi, told Iran’s defense agency Defa Press.
When asked if Iran will respond to the aggression, Mousavi stated that “Iran’s response has already been seen” in an apparent allusion to last Saturday’s attack on Israel.
For their part, Israeli authorities had not commented, while Iranian state media reported that no impact or large-scale explosion had occurred in the country. Only the far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, published a cryptic message on social networks in which he simply said “Scarecrow!”, in an apparent show of rejection of the limited nature of the Israeli attack.
The Iranian state news agency also reported that local defenses were fired in several provinces, such as in the city of Tabriz. He did not give more details about the cause of the activation of those batteries.
Hossein Dalirian, spokesman for Iran’s civil space program, posted on his networks that several small “quadcopter” drones had been shot down, but did not give further details.
Despite confirmation of Israel’s attack by various sources, including Iranian ones, Tehran officials came out to deny incidents in Isfahan: they pointed out that the reports about the explosions were false and attributed them to “propaganda by the Israeli and American media.”
The Israeli retaliation occurred on the same day that Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Iranian theocracy, turns 85.
According to the English newspaper The Guardian, Israel warned Joe Biden’s administration early Thursday that an attack would occur in the next 24 to 48 hours.
The Israelis assured the US government that Iran’s nuclear facilities would not be attacked.
According to that report, Israel told the United States that its response would be “limited in scope.” US intelligence had already revealed that Israel was considering a “narrow and limited attack inside Iran because they feel they have to respond with kinetic action of some kind,” given the unprecedented scale of the Iranian attack.
The scope of the targets “was never specified in precise terms, but nuclear and civilian locations were clearly not in that category,” added another source in contact with CNN.
The president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, had warned last Wednesday that Israel would see a “massive and harsh” response to the “smallest invasion.”
This Thursday night, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian had said in an interview with CNN that if Israel takes any action against Iranian interests, the response would be “immediate and at the maximum level.” Clarion.
