Israel attacked Iran with a handful of drones and air-launched missiles on Friday, according to US officials and unnamed Israeli sources who spoke to the newspaper. While Western officials believe an Israeli missile hit an Iranian air base, Tehran has only acknowledged being attacked with small quadcopter drones, and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian described the planes as “children’s toys” that were easily demolished.
Tel Aviv initially intended a much broader wave of attacks against military sites across the country, including near Tehran, unnamed Israeli officials told the outlet. However, the United States, Britain and Germany exerted “concerted diplomatic pressure” on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and forced him to settle for a more limited response, the officials added.
This response “prevented significant damage, decreasing the likelihood of an escalation,” the newspaper reported.
The Israeli military has not commented on the report and has stuck to its usual policy of refusing to confirm or deny attacks on foreign soil.
The latest round of escalation between Israel and Iran began on April 1, when an Israeli airstrike hit the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus. The attack killed seven Quds Force officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including two senior generals.
Tehran warned it would retaliate and two weeks later launched multiple waves of kamikaze missiles and drones against Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu initially planned immediate retaliatory strikes but was dissuaded during a phone call with US President Joe Biden, the New York Times reported last week. In both last week’s and Monday’s briefings, Israeli and US officials emphasized that Washington wanted Tel Aviv to avoid provoking Iran into an escalating series of retaliatory attacks and counterattacks.
The plan appears to have been successful.
“As long as there is no new adventurism on the part of Israel against our interests, we will not have new reactions,” Amirabdollahian said on Saturday.
While some of Netanyahu’s hardline political allies criticized the supposedly “unconvincing” response, officials who spoke to the New York Times insisted that the attacks demonstrated “the breadth and sophistication of Israel’s military arsenal,” the newspaper paraphrased. .