On the night of Friday 19 April Israel launched an attack against‘Iran: some drones have been intercepted over the skies of Isfahan (or Esfahan), in central Iran, about 400 km from the capital Tehran, where it seems a military air base which hosts a fleet of American-made F-14 Tomcats: Iranian television spoke of large explosions which however did not cause major damage. Iran responded by temporarily closing its own airspace (already reopened at the time of writing this article) and neutralizing most of the drones Israelis. Nuclear sites near Isfahan are safe and have not been attacked, according to Iranian authorities and theInternational Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The United States they stated that they had been warned by the Israeli government of the attack, but that they did not support the operation. Both the USA and other powers, including Italy, had in fact tried to dissuade Israel from responding further to the Iranian attack of last 13 and 14 April, to avoid a spiral of retaliation and violence that could causeescalation in the Middle East. In any case, Iranian airspace has already been reopened and the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani has assured that Italians present in Iranian territory are safe.
Israel’s appears to have been a limited attack, aimed at demonstrating the ability to strike Iran, if deemed necessary. and not to leave the attack silent April 13th and 14th last by Iran, which itself occurred in response to the bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus by Israeli F-35s April 1st. Even in Iran, some analysts and arms control experts have declared that the attack conducted by Israel during the night was more contained than expected and it seems that at the moment Tehran does not want to respond in a massive and harsh way. Israeli National Security Minister Ben Gvir called Israel’s attack on Iran “weak.”
Hopefully this remains a limited episode that does not fuel further reprisals. The attacks were in fact limited and did not cause significant damage, limiting themselves to hitting military targets and causing no casualties.
