Iranian officials have downplayed Israel’s drone attack on Iranian territory, signaling there will be no response.
“What happened last night was not a strike,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told NBC News on Friday. “They were more like toys that our children play with—not drones.”
Iranian authorities said three small drones were downed in the Isfahan province and did not report any damage. Unnamed Western and Iranian officials speaking to The New York Times said an Iranian air defense system was damaged by an Israeli airstrike, but the claim has not been confirmed by Tehran.
Amirabdollahian would not acknowledge that Israel was behind the drone attack and said Iran would only hit Israel if there were another escalation. “As long as there is no new adventurism by Israel against our interests, then we are not going to have any new reactions,” he said.
On Sunday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iranian forces had “success in recent events,” another sign that Tehran is not planning an escalation. He was referring to Iran’s recent drone and missile attack on Israel, which came in response to the Israeli bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
“How many missiles were launched and how many of them hit their target is not the primary question, what really matters is that Iran demonstrated its power during that operation,” Khamenei said. “In the recent operation, the armed forces managed to minimize costs and maximize gains.”
The risk of escalation in the region still exists as Israel and Hezbollah continue to trade fire across the border, and Israel might continue to target Iranians in Syria. The same night Israel attacked Iran, Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes in Syria and did damage to air defense systems.
Israel has been bombing Syria with impunity for years and has a history of targeting Iranians in the country. But the bombing of an Iranian consulate was a huge escalation since it hit a diplomatic facility and killed seven members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including a senior Quds Force commander.
