A drone attack by Israel on Iran’s air base and nuclear site near the city of Isfahan was met with defense from Iranian troops on Friday morning. This was in response to Iran’s earlier drone and missile attack on Israel.
No Iranian leader said Israel was responsible for the attack, and the Israeli military did not reply when asked for a comment. Tensions have been high since the Saturday attack on Israel, as it is fighting against Hamas in Gaza and targeting Iran in Syria.
Antonio Tajani, the Foreign Minister of Italy, said at the G7 meeting in Capri that the US got new information from Israel about the attack on Isfahan just before it happened.
US officials did not want to talk about it as of early Friday, but American TV networks said that Israel was responsible for the attack, citing unnamed US officials. The New York Times reported that Israeli officials, who did not give their names, said the attack happened on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s 85th birthday. Israeli leaders suggested that their country had launched an attack.
“Air defence weapons were fired in many areas because drones were seen in the sky, according to state television. ” The leader of the Iranian army, General. Abdolrahim Mousavi said that the crew aimed at many things flying in the air.
Mousavi said that the explosion in Isfahan’s sky this morning was because the air defense systems shot at a suspicious object, but it didn’t cause any damage. Some people said the drones might be quadcopters – small drones with four rotors that you can buy.
Officials said that the air defenses shot at a large air base in Isfahan. This base has been where Iran keeps its American-made F-14 Tomcats, which were bought before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Tasnim shared a video from one of its reporters in Isfahan, showing two anti-aircraft gun positions. The area is near a site in Isfahan where Iran converts uranium, and the details in the video match the features of the site.
We heard gunshots at 4:45. He said that nothing was happening. “It was the air defense, those guys you’re watching, and also over there. ”
In Isfahan, there is a place with three small research reactors from China. They also make fuel and do other things for Iran’s civilian nuclear program.
Isfahan is a place in Iran where important places related to Iran’s nuclear program are located. One of these places is the Natanz enrichment site, which is underground. This site has been attacked multiple times, and it is believed that these attacks were carried out by Israel.
The government TV said all nuclear sites in the area are “completely safe. ” The United Nations’ nuclear agency also said there is no damage to Iran’s nuclear sites after the incident.
The IAEA is asking everyone to be very careful and saying that nuclear facilities should never be attacked in wars.
Iran is making really strong uranium for weapons because their deal with other countries fell apart when Donald Trump stopped it in 2018.
Iran says they are using their program for peace, but Western nations and the IAEA claim that Tehran had a secret military weapons program until 2003. The IAEA is telling us that Iran has enough enriched uranium to make many nuclear weapons if they want to. But the U. Sis also worried about this. The intelligence community says that Tehran is not currently trying to make a bomb.
Two airlines from Dubai, Emirates and FlyDubai, changed their flight paths to avoid flying over western Iran at around 4:30 a. mThe time in the area. They didn’t explain, but warnings to pilots in the area suggested that the airspace may have been closed.
Iran stopped all commercial flights in Tehran and surrounding western and central regions. Iran started offering regular flight service again, the officials said.
During the time of the event in Iran, Syria’s state-controlled SANA news agency reported that Israel launched a missile attack on an air defense unit in the southern part of Syria and caused damage. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in Britain said that the strike hit a military radar used by the government forces. “We are not sure if anyone was hurt,” the Observatory stated.
In Iraq, people in Baghdad heard explosions, but they didn’t know where they were coming from. Iran-supported groups have a strong presence in Iraq.
The event in Iran on Friday made people worried that the conflict in the Middle East could get worse. This is because Iranian-backed rebels from Yemen have been attacking ships in the region.
The UK’s naval operation center warned ships in the area that there may be more drones flying in the sky.
“There is no evidence that commercial ships are the planned target,” it said.
The Houthis have attacked ships at least 53 times, taken one ship, and sunk another since November, according to the US Maritime Administration.
Houthi attacks have decreased in recent weeks because the rebels are being attacked by the U. Sand other countries in Yemen. Also, fewer ships are traveling through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden because of the danger.
The supposed attack scared energy markets for a short time, causing the price of Brent crude to briefly go above $90 before dropping again on Friday.
However, the Iranian government’s media tried to make the situation seem less serious by showing a peaceful morning in Isfahan after the incident. This could be done on purpose, especially because Iranian officials have been warning for days that they would strike back if Israel attacked them first.
Iran is still saying they didn’t do it and if nothing else happens, both sides can calm down for now. Sanam Vakil, from Chatham House, said this.