UPDATE: 4/19 4:41 A.M.
DUBAI/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Explosions echoed over an Iranian city on Friday in what sources described as an Israeli attack, but Tehran played down the incident and indicated it had no plans for retaliation – a response that appeared gauged towards averting region-wide war.
The limited scale of the attack and Iran‘s muted response both appeared to signal a successful effort by diplomats who have been working round the clock to avert all-out war since an Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel last Saturday.
Iranian media and officials described a small number of explosions, which they said resulted from Iran‘s air defenses hitting three drones over the city of Isfahan. Notably, they referred to the incident as an attack by “infiltrators”, rather than by Israel, obviating the need for retaliation.
An Iranian official told Reuters there were no plans to respond against Israel for the incident.
“The foreign source of the incident has not been confirmed. We have not received any external attack, and the discussion leans more towards infiltration than attack,” the official said.
Israel said nothing about the incident. It had said for days it was planning to retaliate against Iran for Saturday’s strikes, the first ever direct attack on Israel by Iran in decades of shadow war waged by proxies which has escalated throughout the Middle East through six months of battle in Gaza.
The two longstanding foes had been heading towards direct confrontation since a presumed Israeli airstrike on April 1 that destroyed a building in Iran‘s embassy compound in Damascus and killed several Iranian officers including a top general.
Iran‘s response, with a direct attack on Israel, was unprecedented but caused no deaths and only minor damage because Israel and its allies shot down hundreds of missiles and drones.
Allies including the United States had since been pressing hard to ensure any further retaliation would be calibrated not to provoke a spiral of hostilities. The British and German foreign ministers visited Jerusalem this week, and Western countries tightened sanctions on Iran to mollify Israel.
In a sign of pressure within Israel’s hard-right government for a stronger response, Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right national security minister tweeted a single word after Friday’s strikes: “Feeble!”.
Countries around the world called on Friday for both sides to avert further escalation.
“It is absolutely necessary that the region remains stable and that all sides restrain from further action,” EU Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said. Similar calls came from Beijing and from Arab states in the region.
In financial markets, global shares eased, oil prices surged and U.S. bond yields fell as traders worried about the risks.
NO MENTION OF ISRAEL
Within Iran, news reports on Friday’s incident made no mention of Israel, and state television carried analysts and pundits who appeared dismissive about the scale.
An analyst told state TV that mini drones flown by “infiltrators from inside Iran” had been shot down by air defenses in Isfahan.
Shortly after midnight, “three drones were observed in the sky over Isfahan. The air defense system became active and destroyed these drones in the sky,” Iranian state TV said.
Senior army commander Siavosh Mihandoust was quoted by state TV as saying air defense systems had targeted a “suspicious object”.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi had warned Israel before Friday’s strike that Tehran would deliver a “severe response” to any attack on its territory.
Iran told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that Israel “must be compelled to stop any further military adventurism against our interests” as the U.N. secretary-general warned that the Middle East was in a “moment of maximum peril”.
By morning, Iran had reopened airports and airspace that were shut during the strikes.
Still, there was alarm over security in Israel and elsewhere. The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem restricted U.S. government employees from travel outside Jerusalem, greater Tel Aviv and Beersheba “out of an abundance of caution”.
In a statement, the embassy warned U.S. citizens of a “continued need for caution and increased personal security awareness as security incidents often take place without warning”.
Israel’s assault on Gaza began after Hamas Islamists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s military offensive has killed about 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Gazan health ministry.
Iran-backed groups have declared support for Palestinians, carrying out attacks from Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq, raising fears the Gaza conflict could grow into a wider regional war.
(Reporting by Humeyra Panuk, Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington and Parisa Hafezi in Dubai; Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh, Jasper Ward, Jamie Freed and Dan Williams; Writing by Stephen Coates and Peter Graff; Editing by William Mallard and Angus MacSwan)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Israeli missiles have hit a site in Iran, ABC News reported late on Thursday, citing a U.S. official, while Iranian state media reported an explosion in the center of the country, days after Iran launched a retaliatory drone strike on Israel.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the reports.
Iran’s Fars news agency said an explosion was heard at an airport in the central city of Isfahan but the cause was not immediately known. Iran suspended flights over the cities of Isfahan, Shiraz and Tehran, state media reported.
Several Iranian nuclear sites are located in Isfahan province, including Natanz, centerpiece of Iran’s uranium enrichment program.
Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport was closed to all flights until 0700 GMT, according to a notice to airmen posted on a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration database.
Some Emirates and Flydubai flights that were flying over Iran early on Friday made sudden sharp turns away from the airspace, according to flight paths shown on tracking website Flightradar24.
Israel had said it would retaliate against Iran’s weekend attack, which involved hundreds of drones and missiles in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Syria. Most of the Iranian drones and missiles were downed before reaching Israeli territory.
Analysts and observers have been raising concerns about the risks of the Israel-Gaza war spreading into the rest of the region.
Iran told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that Israel “must be compelled to stop any further military adventurism against our interests” as the U.N. secretary-general warned that the Middle East was in a “moment of maximum peril.”
Oil prices and jumped on the reports of the Israeli strike. Brent crude futures rose 2% to $88.86 a barrel, the dollar gained broadly, gold rose 1% and S&P 500 futures dropped 1%. [MKTS/GLOB]
Israel’s assault on Gaza began after Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s military offensive has killed over 33,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the local health ministry.
Iran-backed groups have declared support for Palestinians, launching attacks from Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Jasper Ward; Writing by Stephen Coates; Editing by William Mallard)
