Israel has vowed to make Iran pay for its unprecedented drone and missile attack on April 13th.
But the military response allegedly carried out by Israel on Friday seems to be limited in scale and scope, indicating an attempt to de-escalate tensions with Iran.
Tehran reported shooting down three quadcopter drones near the city of Isfahan in the central part of the country, where key military and nuclear facilities are located. Unnamed United States (U.S.) officials said Israel used missiles in the attack.
Experts noted that the use of small quadcopter drones, which have limited range, suggests that the attack was launched from within Iran’s territory.
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack in Isfahan. However, experts said that if Israel was behind the attack, it sent a clear message to Tehran.
Israel has been previously accused of targeting military sites in Isfahan with small drones. In January 2023, a military factory was hit. Three months later, Iran announced it had foiled a drone attack on the Ministry of Defense complex in the city.
Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, said that if Israel was behind the attack in Isfahan, it was carried out in a way “that carried the least risk of retaliation from Iran.”
Iran’s attack on April 13th was in response to an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy complex in Syria on April 1st, which killed seven Iranian commanders, including two generals.
Tehran stated that its attack demonstrated that a “new equation” has been established and that Iran will not allow Israeli strikes on Iranian interests abroad to go unanswered.
But on the same day as the Isfahan attack, Israel was accused of targeting air defense systems in Syria, a key ally of Tehran where Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has a presence, Radio Slobodna Evropa writes.
E.Dz.
