Life goes on in Iran after the reports of an alleged Israeli attack. The photo of a woman walking past a poster with an image of rockets being fired was taken in Tehran on Friday.
Photo: Vahid Salemi/AP/NTB
Nor have the authorities in Israel officially confirmed that they were behind any attack on the night of Friday. Much of the information about what is supposed to have happened comes from anonymous sources.
An unnamed Israeli official speaks The Washington Post that Israel has carried out an airstrike inside Iran in retaliation for the Iranian drone and rocket attack against Israel recently.
Iran appears to be playing down what has happened. State television in the country reports that three drones have been shot down over the city of Isfahan. An Iranian analyst believes the drones were operated by infiltrators inside Iran.
– We have not been hit by an attack from outside, the discussions are more in the direction of infiltration than attack, claims an unnamed Iranian official to Reuters.
– Does not want escalation
The same anonymous Iranian official says the country has no immediate plans to retaliate after the night’s events.
Isabell Schierenbeck, professor of political science at Gothenburg University in Sweden, believes it is clear that neither Iran nor Israel want to escalate the situation.
– There is an opportunity now for things to calm down, she says to the news agency TT.
Several US media refer to unnamed sources who say the US was notified of the Israeli attack in advance. The US is said not to have given Israel any approval for the operation.
Both the EU and China warn against further escalation of the tense situation in the Middle East. Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide (Ap) tells NTB that he is deeply concerned about the development.
– It is important that this comes across in a diplomatic way. This crisis cannot be solved through new bomb attacks, says Eide, who emphasizes that Norway has issued clear warnings against escalation.
Attack in Syria
While it is unclear exactly what has happened inside Iran, on Friday there was a military attack in Syria that Israel is believed to have been behind.
The Ministry of Defense in Syria says Israel carried out a rocket attack against air defense facilities in the southern part of the country. The exile group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says a radar system was hit.
The Jerusalem Post writes that there have also been reports of explosions in the Baghdad area and Babil in Iraq.
In Iran, several sources confirm that air defenses were used in the city of Isfahan. The Iranian military has a large airbase in Isfahan, and the area also has facilities linked to the Iranian nuclear program, including a uranium enrichment facility in Natanz.
– Nuclear facilities in Isfahan province are completely safe, reports the news agency Tasnim, citing what the agency calls “reliable sources”.
Western countries and Israel have for a number of years suspected that Iran is secretly working on developing nuclear weapons, something Iran denies.
Redirects aircraft
After the reports of attacks in Iran, several airlines chose to redirect their flights over the western part of the country.
There were hardly any planes in the air over the western part of Iran after 4 o’clock Norwegian time, according to information from the flight tracking service FlightRadar24.
Israel has announced strikes against Iran in response to Iran’s drone and missile attacks on Israel last weekend. This was Iran’s first ever direct attack against Israel. Several hundred rockets and drones were used, but the vast majority were shot down.
A girl was injured when she was hit by a piece of a projectile, but no one was killed in the Iranian attack.
Iran called the attack retaliation for the suspected Israeli attack on an Iranian embassy building in Syria on April 1. Here, two Iranian generals and several other Iranian officers were killed.
According to the exile group SOHR several militia members and two civilians were also killed in the attack on the embassy building.
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2024-04-21 09:04:38