Explosions rang out over an Iranian city today, with sources saying it was an Israeli attack, but Tehran downplayed the incident and said it did not plan to retaliate, a response that appeared to be aimed at preventing a region-wide war. , quoted by BTA.
The limited scale of the attack and Iran's muted response appear to signal a successful effort by diplomats working around the clock to prevent full-scale war following Iran's drone and missile attack on Israel last Saturday.
Iranian media and officials described a small number of explosions that they said were the result of Iranian air defenses downing three drones over the city of Isfahan. It should be noted that they called what happened an "infiltrator" attack, not an Israeli attack, meaning that there was no need for a response, Reuters points out.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters there were no plans to retaliate against Israel.
"It has not been confirmed that the source of what happened is foreign. We have not been attacked from abroad and the discussions are leaning more toward infiltration than attack," said the Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Jonathan Lord, head of the Middle East security program at the Center for a New American Security, a US think tank, said Iran's response "seems to indicate that Tehran wants to step back from the brink, play down the effects of the attack and may would head down the ladder of escalation".
Israel is silent about what happened. For days, he said he was planning a retaliatory strike against Iran for Saturday's attack. It was Iran's first direct attack on Israel in the decades-long shadow war, which has been fought through allies and has escalated across the Middle East amid six months of fighting in Gaza, according to Reuters.
The two long-time foes have been on the road to direct confrontation since a suspected Israeli airstrike on April 1 destroyed a building in the Iranian 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 casualties and only minor damage as Israel and its allies shot down hundreds of missiles and drones.