Explosions in central Iran, American media talk about Israeli strikes – Telquel.ma

LThe Fars news agency reported three explosions near a military base in Qahjavarestan, between the city of Isfahan and its airport, in the center of the country. The drones were shot down, but there was no missile attack.”until now“, indicated the spokesman of the Iranian space agency.

Quoting “referred sources“, the news agency Tasnim reports that “there are no reports of an attack from abroad“.

According to an American newspaper The New York Timesciting Iranian officials, the attack was carried out by small drones, possibly launched from Iranian territory, and air defenses “did not detect any unidentified flying objects crossing Iranian airspace“. Israeli and Iranian leaders did not react to the attack.

Israel’s response?

Quoted by an American newspaper The Washington Postan Israeli official said, on condition of anonymity, that the attack was in retaliation for an attack over the weekend and aimed to demonstrate to Iran that Israel has the capacity to strike from within.

The nuclear facilities in the Isfahan region are “completely safe“, the agency Tasnim stated. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed that there is “no damage” at nuclear sites, repeating his calls for restraint.

Commercial flights, briefly suspended to and from Tehran, resumed early in the morning, according to IRNA. The Emirati airline Flydubai nevertheless canceled flights to Iran on Friday.

According to US officials quoted by several US television stations, including ABC News, the explosions are linked to an Israeli attack on Iran in retaliation for last weekend’s Iranian attacks on Israel.

Washington was warned of an Israeli attack on Iran on Thursday, but neither authorized the operation nor played any role in its execution, the officials said, according to US channels NBC and CNN.

The Israeli army told AFP it had no comment.For now” regarding these explosions was announced early Friday morning. The military said the warning sirens sounded in northern Israel on the border with Lebanon, the scene of firefights in recent months between the Israeli army and pro-Iranian Hezbollah.

The US Embassy in Israel on Friday ordered its employees and their families to limit travel within the country, as calls for calm grew around the world.

In the region, Oman, a Gulf country that has long been a mediator between Iran and the West, condemned “Israeli attack” in Iran as well as “Repeated Israeli military aggressions in the region“.

Israeli strikes also targeted military air defense sites in southern Syria at dawn on Friday, according to the Syrian Defense Ministry.

The new development comes as Israel threatened to respond to an attack on its territory launched by Tehran on April 13 following a deadly strike attributed to Israel on its consulate in Damascus, Syria.

Israel said it and its allies had intercepted almost all of the roughly 350 drones and missiles launched by Iran, and confirmed that Iran’s attack would not stop “with impunity“. It was Iran’s first direct attack on its greatest enemy.

In the April 13 attack on Israel, Iran said it acted in “self defense” after an attack that destroyed its consulate in Damascus on April 1 and claimed the lives of seven of its soldiers, including two senior officers. Tehran has accused Israel, which it has neither confirmed nor denied.

“Iran’s self-defensive actions and countermeasures are over, so Israel’s terrorist regime must stop any further military adventurism against our interests“, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Thursday during a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East.

“The Middle East is on the brink”

Israel’s top ally, the United States, called on Israel to exercise restraint, opting instead to step up its sanctions against “Iran’s drone program, steel industry and car manufacturers“. The EU and the United Kingdom also announced new sanctions on Tehran following the attack on Israel over the weekend.

“We are on the brink of a war in the Middle East that will send shock waves to the rest of the world“, underlined on Thursday the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, calling for restraint.

“The Middle East is on edge. In recent days, there has been a dangerous escalation, through words and actions“, said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

“A misjudgment, a miscommunication, a mistake, could lead to an unimaginable, widespread regional conflict that would be devastating for everyone involved, as well as for the rest of the world.“, he added, calling first for a ceasefire in Gaza.

In other UN news, the United States on Thursday vetoed an Algerian resolution calling for full Palestinian membership in the United Nations.

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and is considered a “terrorist organization” by Israel, the European Union and the United States, condemned the US veto.

The same for the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, whose administration is based in the occupied West Bank, which sees in the American veto “an obvious aggression against international law“the middle east push”even more on the edge of the abyss“.

Israel’s intensive bombing campaign, followed by a ground offensive, was triggered by an attack by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza in southern Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to AFP. report based on official Israeli data.

More than 250 people were kidnapped during the attack, and 129 remain in Gaza, 34 of whom have died, according to Israeli officials. A total of 33,970 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have died since the war began, according to Hamas’ health ministry.

Talks on a Gaza ceasefire combined with the release of hostages have been stalled for months, with the warring parties accusing each other of blocking them.

In Tel Aviv, relatives of the hostages once again demonstrated to demand their release before the Jewish Passover, which begins on Monday night. “Agreement for hostages now!”, “Stop the war”, proclaimed the signs waved by the demonstrators.