• Missile strikes claim lives of four soldiers
• UN chief ‘deeply alarmed’ by the escalation of violence
• Tehran’s foreign ministry says Iran entitled to defend itself, but it ‘recognises its responsibilities towards peace’

TEHRAN: In yet another move risking a wider conflagration in the region that could drag in global powers and imperil world energy supplies, Israel bombed military sites in Iran in the early hours on Saturday, but drew no immediate vows of vengeance as Tehran’s initial response appeared somewhat muted.

Israel’s military said scores of jets had completed three waves of strikes before dawn against missile factories and other sites near Tehran and in western Iran, warning its heavily armed arch-foe not to hit back while a semi-official Iranian news agency said there would be a “proportional reaction” to the strikes.

Iran said the attack claimed the lives of four soldiers but its air defences successfully countered it. “Thanks to the timely performance of the country’s air defences, the attacks caused limited damage and a few radar systems were damaged,” the armed forces general staff said, adding that a large number of missiles were intercepted and enemy aircraft were prevented from entering the country’s airspace.

Earlier in response to the assassinations of Hamas leader on Iranian soil allegedly by Israel and Hezbollah leader in Lebanon, Iran had launched ballistic missiles at Israel, killing one person in the occupied West Bank.

Israel’s military claimed its jets had struck missile manufacturing facilities and surface-to-air missile arrays, and safely returned home. If Iran were to make the mistake of “beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond”, the military said.

Tehran’s foreign ministry said Iran was “entitled and obligated” to defend itself, but added that it “recognises its responsibilities towards regional peace and security”.

Two regional officials briefed by Tehran said several high-level meetings were held in Tehran to determine the scope of Iran’s response. One official said the damage was “very minimal”.

Iranian news sites aired footage of passengers at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport, seemingly meant to show there was little impact.

Israel’s military, signalling it did not expect an immediate Iranian response, said there was no change to public safety restrictions across the country.

Beni Sabti, an Iran expert at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies, said the Israeli strike had appeared designed to give Tehran an opportunity to avoid further escalation. “We see that Israel wants to close this event, to pass this message to Iran that it is closed and we don’t want to escalate it,” he said.

Videos carried by Iranian media showed air defences continuously firing at apparently incoming projectiles in central Tehran, without saying which sites were coming under attack.

Israel notified the United States before striking, but Washington was “not involved” in the operation, a US official told Reuters.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials were assessing the security situation after the strikes, his office said. Netanyahu is conducting an assessment of the security situation at the air force base in the Kirya with the defence minister, the army chief, the head of the Mossad and the head of the Shin Bet, a statement from his office said.

Netanyahu said Israel had chosen the targets it attacked in Iran “based on its national interests, not according to what was dictated by the United States”.

Netanyahu’s office issued the statement in response to what it referred to as a “completely false” local television report that Israel had avoided striking Iranian gas and oil facilities because of US pressure. “Israel chose in advance the attack targets according to its national interests and not according to American dictates. So it was, and so it will be,” his office said.

UN chief ‘deeply alarmed’

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Saturday said he was “deeply alarmed” by the escalation of violence in the Middle East after Israel carried out deadly air strikes in Iran.

Guterres “urgently reiterates his appeal to all parties to cease all military actions, including in Gaza and Lebanon,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement, calling for “maximum efforts to prevent an all-out regional war and return to the path of diplomacy.”

After the attack, Iran’s armed forces general staff, in a statement read out on Iranian state TV, said Israeli aircraft were reduced to firing a “small number of long-range missiles with very light warheads from a distance”, inside the US-patrolled airspace of neighbouring Iraq.

“While reserving its legal and legitimate right to respond at the appropriate moment, Iran is prioritising the establishment of a lasting ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon,” the statement added.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2024