Iran says it has 'duty to defend itself' after Israeli strikes

Photo: Atta Kenare Agence France-Presse An anti-Israeli billboard covers the facade of a building in Tehran, October 26, 2024.

Ramin Khanizadeh – Agence France-Presse

Posted at 10:04 am

• Middle East

Iran said Saturday it had a “duty to defend itself” after airstrikes against missile manufacturing sites carried out by Israel, which threatened the Islamic Republic with “paying a high price” if it retaliated.

These bombings come nearly a month after Iranian missile strikes on Israel, at a time when the Israeli army is at war with two Islamist movements supported by Iran: Hamas in the Gaza Strip for more than a year and Hezbollah in Lebanon since the end of September.

The Israeli attack on “military sites in Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam provinces” caused “limited damage,” the Iranian army said, adding that two soldiers were killed, without specifying where.

After the launch of some 200 Iranian missiles on October 1, Israel had vowed revenge, and Tehran had assured that it was ready to retaliate to an attack, raising fears of a regional war.

With these strikes, the Israeli army has “completed the response to Iran’s attacks on Israel,” according to Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the army.

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But Iran “considers that it has the right and the duty to defend itself against foreign acts of aggression,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Two soldiers killed

The Israeli army said it had “struck missile manufacturing sites […] that Iran has been firing at the State of Israel for the past year. These missiles posed a direct and immediate threat to the citizens of Israel.”

“The Iranian regime and its proxies in the region have relentlessly attacked Israel since October 7 (2023) on multiple fronts, including direct attacks from Iranian soil,” she continued.

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According to the army, the strikes also targeted “surface-to-air missile batteries and other air systems that were intended to restrict Israel’s freedom to operate in Iran.”

During the night in Iran, the official news agency IRNA reported the first detonations around 2:15 a.m. local time, mainly west of Tehran, while state television reported “six strong detonations” around Tehran, “linked to the activation of the air defense system.”

AFP journalists heard detonations accompanied by luminous trails in the sky seen from the center of the Iranian capital.

In Tehran on Saturday morning, Sepideh, 30, went to work normally on Saturday, despite fears of escalation. “I don't think there will be war in Iran,” the young woman, who did not give her name, told AFP.

Israel’s ally, the United States, called the Israeli strikes “self-defense maneuvers” and called on Tehran to “cease its attacks against Israel so that this cycle of violence can end without further escalation.”

Germany called on Iran to avoid any “massive reaction,” while Russia expressed concern about an “explosive escalation.”

The Israeli strikes were condemned by several Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and Syria, fearing a regional conflagration.

In Syria, whose regime is an ally of Iran, the state news agency reported nighttime Israeli strikes against “military positions ».

And at dawn in Iraq, the factions of the “Islamic Resistance,” a nebulous group of Iraqi armed groups allied with Tehran, claimed responsibility for a drone attack against a “military target” in northern Israel.

Gulf countries worried

On the Lebanese front where Israel and Hezbollah are fighting, the Ani news agency reported that the Israeli army was “dynamiting” houses in the border village of Adaysseh.

The Israeli army announced that it had struck 70 Hezbollah targets, as it continued its ground operation launched on September 30 in southern Lebanon bordering of Israel.

The Lebanese Islamist movement said it had targeted an Israeli intelligence base near Safed.

After weakening Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli army moved the heart of its operations to Lebanon.

She says she wants to defeat Hezbollah in the border areas and allow the return to northern Israel of 60,000 displaced people due to rocket fire from the Islamist movement over the past year, which opened a front in support of Hamas on October 8, 2023.

But since October 6, the Israeli army has resumed its offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, where according to her Hamas is regrouping its forces, at a time when a resumption of talks with a view to ending the war is taking shape, after the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinouar, killed by Israeli soldiers on October 16.

The head of Mossad, Israeli David Barnea, is to meet his CIA counterpart, American Bill Burns, and the Prime Minister in Qatar on Sunday. qatari.

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data, including hostages killed or killed in captivity.

The Israeli offensive launched to annihilate Hamas has cost the lives of at least 42,924 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.