Iranian officials claimed the strike, which included at least three drones, hit its military base near the city of Isfahan, in the country’s center. But they also said the attack was ineffective, appearing to downplay the incident.
Israel, meanwhile, also had a muted reaction to what it said was a limited response to Tehran to avoid escalating tensions between the two countries.
There were several takeaways from the attack, the top one being the strike seemed calibrated to avoid further retaliation from Iran.
Israel’s strike follows the unprecedented Iranian drone and missile assault on the country on April 13, which Tehran said was retaliation for Israel’s airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Syria on April 1.
While Israel and Iran have long waged a shadow war, Tehran’s strike — which included hundreds of missiles and drones, nearly all of which were intercepted — was the country’s first direct military attack on Israel.
Israeli officials for the past week had threatened a powerful response, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brushing off allies’ calls for restraint.
But on Friday, following the relatively small drone attack, Israeli officials were mostly quiet.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi had also warned that the “tiniest” assault on his country would trigger a “massive and harsh” response. But hours after Israel’s attack, no public calls for retribution had emerged.
The relatively small Israeli response was calculated to prevent the tit-for-tat from further spinning out of control, analysts said.
The area Israel struck in Iran also seemed to be highly calculated, as it hosts a number of Iranian military sites, including four small nuclear research facilities, the nearby Natanz uranium enrichment site, an airbase that contains fighter jets and a missile production factory.
“This wasn’t about destroying Iranian infrastructure or killing Iranians, it was really about sending a message,” former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on CNN Friday. “The message being that ‘we can touch you, we can reach deep into Iran, and we can hit very sensitive sites.’”
The United States, meanwhile, appears to want to stay out of the fray, as the White House on Friday kept quiet about the incident.
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
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