According to officials and diplomats, the attacks were contained and intended to prevent a major escalation.
Early on Friday morning, Israel attacked Iran in what seemed to be a limited and targeted response to Tehran’s drone and missile attack from the previous weekend.
In reaction to the attack, both sides remained silent, indicating that neither nation wanted to see further escalation that would have increased the likelihood of a full-blown regional conflict.
According to Iranian commanders, there was no damage and the explosions close to Isfahan, the capital, were caused by unidentified items being removed by air defense batteries. Regarding the attack, few statements were made in public by Iranian officials.
Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, stated at an Organization of Islamic Cooperation conference in New York that pro-Israeli media outlets were attempting to “portray another failure as victory.” However, he claimed that “no material or human losses were caused by the destruction of small airborne vehicles.”
Israel did not publicly remark on Iran’s missile barrage last weekend, which was the first direct strike against Israel from Iranian soil. Instead, Israel spent six days considering how to respond. Western diplomats did, however, confirm the attack.
An Iranian official told the Financial Times that they were first told that “small drones and quadcopters” were used in the attack, but that information was later changed to indicate that a “limited” number of intercepted missiles had been fired at the country.
Although the official was unable to reveal the precise number or location of the missile launches or interceptions, she did state that Iran was not attempting to inflame the situation.
The official stated, “We’re attempting to keep it as low as possible to demonstrate that nothing has happened.”
Western nations exerted significant pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration to exercise moderation in its reaction, as there were concerns that the conflict that resulted from Hamas’s October 7 attack and Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza may spark a wider regional crisis.
According to an Israeli official, Israel officially informed Washington a few hours prior to launch of its planned strikes in Iran on Thursday night.
The person stated that while the warning lacked specifics about the strike, it was apparent that Israel planned to stay away from Tehran and its environs and was targeting a particular military operation or installation associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that “the US has not been involved in any offensive operations” during remarks made at a G7 summit on the Italian island of Capri, but he would not elaborate.
He went on, “Our work to de-escalate tension is what we are focused on,” urging “all concerned to exercise restraint.”
Separately, according to a military source cited by Syria’s Sana state news agency, Israeli missiles had hit air defense systems in the country’s southern region.
According to a person with knowledge of the situation, there were no casualties reported from the operation in Iran, which struck a military target connected to Iran’s attack on Israel. The source claimed that “some targets” in southern Syria had also been struck.
The individual stated, “Geographically, it demonstrates that Israel can go anywhere it wants in Iran.” That was included in the message.
A military air base and a significant location for Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran maintains is entirely benign but which the West worries could push the Islamic republic closer to obtaining weapons, are both located near Isfahan. The Revolutionary Guards’ neighbor, the Tasnim news agency, denied any foreign attack and declared the air base and nuclear plant next to the city to be secure.
State television cited Iran’s top army commander, Abdolrahim Mousavi, as claiming that Isfahan’s air defense batteries had fired at a few airborne objects, missing any, but causing no harm. He stated that specialists were carrying out additional research and that the results would be made public when appropriate. As the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency stated that it could “confirm that there is no damage to Iran’s nuclear sites” but urged “extreme restraint.” The strike on Friday was called “a very limited attack” with “no human consequences or huge damage,” according to a senior EU official.
“It is evident that this is a very minor action on the part of Israel,” they continued, citing all available possibilities. Following the attacks, oil prices surged sharply, but traders quickly lost most of their gains as they gambled against further increases. After rising beyond $90 earlier in the day, Brent crude was up 0.3% at $87.39 a barrel. After Iran fired over 300 armed drones and missiles at Israel last weekend, tensions have increased throughout the Middle East. Iran claimed that the strike was in retaliation for an Israeli-perpetrated attack on its embassy in Damascus that claimed the lives of senior military commanders. According to a western diplomat, Israel had made it clear in talks with friends prior to the hit that, despite pressure from right-wing members of Netanyahu’s administration, it was not seeking an escalation in response to Iran’s attack.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s ultranationalist minister for national security who had advocated for a “crushing attack” on Iran, wrote: “Weak!” in a critical post on X. The head of the largest opposition party in the nation, Yair Lapid, denounced his remarks.
Lapid stated, “Never before has a minister in the security cabinet caused such severe harm to the nation’s security, reputation, and international standing.” “From Tehran to Washington, Ben-Gvir shamed and ridiculed Israel in an unforgivable one-word tweet.”
Israeli planes struck a battalion close to the town of Qarfa in the southern Deraa region of Syria, according to Deraa24, a news outlet run by the Syrian opposition. It added that a car transporting missiles connected to the unit was also hit.