The international community on Friday called for restraint after a retaliatory attack on Iran blamed on Israel, amid growing escalation in the Middle East since the devastating Gaza war began more than six years ago. month.
Before dawn, explosions were heard near a military base in the Isfahan region of central Iran. But Iranian authorities have downplayed the impact of the explosions and have not directly accused Israel, which has not claimed responsibility for them.
American media, citing American officials, claimed that it was an Israeli operation carried out in response to an unprecedented Iranian drone and missile attack against Israel on April 13. Israel has vowed to make Iran, its sworn enemy, pay the price for its attack.
This latest outbreak of fever comes as the war between Israel and Hamas, triggered by a bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7, has not let up and has left 34,012 dead in Gaza, mainly civilians, according to the ministry. of Hamas Health.
Early Friday, Iran’s Fars news agency reported three explosions near a military base in Qahjavarestan, between Isfahan and its airport.
Drones were shot down but “there was no missile attack,” said the spokesperson for the Iranian space agency. There have “been, so far, no air attacks from outside the borders against Isfahan or other parts of the country,” he added.
“We have no comment at the moment,” an Israeli army spokesperson told AFP about the explosions.
According to New York Timeswhich cites Iranian officials, the attack was carried out by small drones, probably launched from Iranian territory.
For his part, the Washington Postciting an Israeli official who requested anonymity, said the attack was intended to show Iran that Israel had the capacity to strike inside its territory.
The Global Affairs Canada team informed me of the explosions that occurred last night in Iran. We are monitoring the situation closely. We will raise the issue with foreign ministers at the G7 session this morning in Italy.
— Mélanie Joly (@melaniejoly) April 19, 2024
The United States “not involved”
Nuclear installations in the Isfahan region are “completely safe”, the Tasnim agency said in the wake of the attack.
“No damage” to nuclear sites, confirmed the International Atomic Energy Agency.
At the G7 ministerial meeting in Capri, Italy, the head of Italian diplomacy Antonio Tajani affirmed that the United States, Israel’s historic allies, had “been informed at the last moment” of the attack, without specifying by whom .
The United States “was not involved in an offensive operation,” declared his American counterpart Antony Blinken, present in Capri, stressing that the “objective” of his country and the other members of the G7 was “de-escalation” .
Joe Biden’s administration has been publicly insisting for several days that it does not want “an extended war with Iran.”
A sign of the feverishness of the situation, the American embassy in Israel has ordered its employees to limit their travel in the country. The Chinese embassy in Iran has called on its nationals to take “precautions”.
“Get out of the escalation cycle”
“It is high time to stop the dangerous cycle of reprisals in the Middle East,” said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, quoted by his spokesperson.
The head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov reported contacts with Iran and Israel. “We told the Israelis that Iran does not want escalation,” he said.
“We seem to be at a moment where both parties are seeking to escape the cycle of escalation,” said Julien Barnes-Dacey, expert at the European Council on International Relations.
Several Western and Arab countries have called for restraint.
In the first direct attack ever carried out by Iran against Israeli territory on October 13, Israel claimed to have intercepted with its allies, mainly the United States, almost all of the approximately 350 Iranian drones and missiles.
Iran said it acted in “self-defense” after the attack which destroyed its consulate in Damascus on April 1 and cost the lives of seven of its soldiers, including two senior officers. Tehran accused Israel, which neither confirmed nor denied.
No respite in Gaza
On Israel’s southern front, the Israeli army continued its deadly strikes on the Gaza Strip which it is besieging and where the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants are threatened with famine according to the UN.
It said it had destroyed “military sites and observation posts” in the center of the small territory.
In the past 24 hours, at least 42 Palestinians have died in Israeli bombardments, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
The large-scale Israeli offensive was launched after an attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza in the south of Israel, which left 1,170 people dead, mainly civilians, according to an AFP report established in from official Israeli data.
More than 250 people were kidnapped during the attack and 129 remain held in Gaza, 34 of whom died according to Israeli officials.
Israel has said it wants to wipe out Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007 and is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the European Union and Israel.
The G7 expressed its opposition to a ground offensive in Rafah, wanted by Israel for whom this city, where 1.5 million Palestinians are massed, is the last major bastion of Hamas.