Iran leaders warn Israel
AS REGIONAL tensions run high, Iran paraded drones, missiles and soldiers yesterday to show it is ready for any response from Israel after launching an unprecedented attack on its bitter enemy.
The Islamic Republic carried out its first direct attack on Israel at the weekend in response to an April 1 air strike on its consulate in Damascus which has been widely blamed on Israel.
The operation dubbed Honest Promise “brought down the glory of the Zionist regime (Israel)”, President Ebrahim Raisi said at a military base on the outskirts of Tehran.
“This operation showed our armed forces are ready,” he said in an address to the regular army and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Yesterday’s parade saw the Iranian armed forces showcase a range of military equipment, including drones and long-range ballistic missiles.
Among them were multiple versions of the Ababil, Arash and Mohajer drones as well as the Dezful medium-range ballistic missile and S-300 air defence missile system.
Raisi yesterday reiterated warnings against “the slightest act of aggression” by Israel, saying it would lead to “a fierce and severe response”.
Israel has vowed to respond to the weekend attack, with military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari saying Iran would not get off “scot-free”.
The Israeli army said most of the projectiles fired by Iran were shot down – with the help of the US and other allies – and that the attack caused only minimal damage.
Iran hailed the attack as “successful” and said it “achieved all its objectives”, including inflicting damages to the air base and intelligence centre which it says was used by Israel to strike the Damascus consulate.
Yesterday, Iran’s air force commander Hamid Vahedi warned Iran’s enemies against making a “strategic error”. “We are 100% ready on all aerial fronts,” he said.
Raisi also hit out at countries that had “sought to normalise relations” with Israel. “These countries are now humiliated in front of their own people which constitutes a strategic failure for the regime” of Israel, he said.
In 2020, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco normalised relations with Israel as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords, vehemently criticised by the Palestinians. Egypt and Jordan signed peace accords with Israel in 1979 and 1994, respectively.
Iran insists its attack on Israel was limited and carried out in “self-defence” following the strike on its consulate in the Syrian capital. It said it had informed the US and given a 72-hour warning to neighbouring countries ahead of the attack.
Meanwhile, Israel faced pressure from its allies yesterday to refrain from striking back at Iran for the attack as Washington and Brussels vowed to ramp up sanctions against the Islamic republic.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, were the first Western envoys to visit Israel and urge calm.
Cameron said: “We’re very anxious to avoid escalation and to say to our friends in Israel: It’s a time to think with head as well as heart, and in many ways this is a double defeat for Iran. Not only was their attack an almost total failure, but also the rest of the world can now see what a malign influence they are in the region,” he said.
Middle East tensions – which have soared amid the Israel-Hamas war raging in Gaza since October 7 – have been stoked further as Iran has vowed to hit back if its arch foe Israel launches any further attacks.
In the large-scale assault late on Saturday, Iran and allied groups launched more than 300 missiles and drones carrying a combined payload of 85 tons at Israel, according to the Israeli army. Damage and casualties were limited as Israel’s air defences intercepted most of them, an effort joined by US, British, French and Jordanian forces.
It remained unclear how and when Israel might strike, and whether it would target Iran directly or attack its interests or allies abroad in places such as Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Israel’s top ally, the US, has made clear it won’t join any attack on Iran and has called for de-escalation, as have a host of other Western and Arab leaders. Washington has vowed instead to level more sanctions targeting Iran’s missile and drone programme, its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian defence ministry.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Brussels was also working to expand sanctions against Iran, including its supply of drones and other weapons to Russia and to proxy groups around the Middle East. Germany’s Baerbock said that Berlin and Paris were in favour of a European sanctions regime against Iranian drones to be extended to include “missile technologies in Iran’s arsenal”.
She and Cameron both met Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who urged a global push to “work decisively and defiantly against the threat by the Iranian regime seeking to undermine the stability of the whole region”.
Cameron also urged the G7 to adopt new “co-ordinated sanctions against Iran”, ahead of a meeting with counterparts from the Western-led grouping in Italy.
Talks towards a truce and hostage release deal have stalled for now, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, a key mediator, said, despite months of effort also involving US and Egyptian officials.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told new army recruits that Israel is fighting Hamas “without mercy”. The military said yesterday that its aircraft had “struck more than 40 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” over the past day and had “eliminated a number of terrorists and destroyed terrorist infrastructure”.
Vast areas of Gaza have been devastated by more than six months of war, while its 2.4 million people have suffered under an Israeli siege that has blocked most water, food, medicines and other vital supplies.
The UN said it would launch an appeal yesterday for $2.8 billion (R53bn) to help Palestinians in Gaza and in the occupied West Bank. The bloodiest Gaza war has revived the push for a two-state solution.
The Palestinians this month formally revived an application first made in 2011, though the veto-wielding US has expressed opposition.
The UN Security Council was preparing to vote yesterday on an Algeria-drafted resolution for full UN membership for a Palestinian state, diplomatic sources said. The UN Security Council last month adopted a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza but this has had no effect on the ground.