For weeks the US had warned Israel publicly against hitting oil infrastructure or sites linked to Iran’s nuclear programme over fears of sparking a broader regional conflagration…reports Asian Lite News
American President Joe Biden said on Saturday he hopes Israel’s latest strikes on Iran will mark the end of a months-long cycle of escalation, as his administration doubles down on efforts to reach a ceasefire deal for Gaza and Lebanon. “I hope this is the end,” he told reporters.
Waves of fighter jets and drones bombed military sites across Iran in an hours-long barrage on Saturday, the first time Israel has openly attacked its erstwhile enemy after decades of shadow warfare.
However, the strikes were restrained enough for Iranian officials to belittle the scale and effectiveness of the incursion and for Israeli hardliners to denounce their government for timidity. Israel’s military could have “exacted a higher price”, opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a post on X after the bombing ended.
For weeks the US had warned Israel publicly against hitting oil infrastructure or sites linked to Iran’s nuclear programme over fears of sparking a broader regional conflagration.
The attack focused on air defence, radar sites, and long-range missile production facilities. Four soldiers were killed, Iranian media said. In a show of military confidence, an Israeli spokesman had announced the attack as it got under way.
Biden said Israel gave him a heads up and it appeared “they didn’t hit anything but military targets” in their attacks. His administration is pushing to revive stalled Gaza ceasefire negotiations, which have been overshadowed by months of escalating aggression between Iran and Israel.
In a carefully worded statement on Saturday night, Iran’s military suggested it would prioritise an agreement to end fighting in Gaza and Lebanon over any retaliation against Israel, suggesting at least parts of Iran’s government want to avoid further escalation.
Iran’s foreign ministry said it had a right to self-defence after on Saturday’s attack. The statement said Iranian radar sites were damaged but some were already under repair, and added that Israel used so-called “stand off” missiles over Iraqi airspace to launch it attacks. They had lighter warheads to travel to targets inside Iran.
However, Israel’s military warned Iran against responding soon after it finished the attack. “If the regime were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond,” said spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari.
There were global calls for restraint, including one from the United Nations head António Guterres, who said he was “deeply alarmed” and called on all sides to step back from further military action. The European Union, Russia, Arab Gulf nations and G7 finance ministers and central Bank governors also warned against further escalation. But months of such demands have had little impact on the ground. Hawks in both Israel and Iran are pushing for a more aggressive approach and the risks of costly miscalculations are immeasurably higher than even a few months ago.
Some Israeli political and security figures describe this moment as a once in a generation chance to strike Iran when its allies are in disarray and its defences have been pounded by waves of airstrikes. National security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Saturday’s attack was “an opening blow” and strikes on the country’s strategic assets “must be the next step”, Haaretz reported. “We have a historic duty to remove the Iranian threat to destroy Israel,” he said in a statement.
Such comments fuel fears in Tehran that Israel could follow a playbook like the one it used against Hezbollah in Lebanon, where escalating airstrikes eventually paved the way for a ground operation.
“The biggest risk now is that having seen its regional deterrence decimated and its conventional deterrence proven inadequate, Iran might choose to go for the ultimate deterrent: crossing the Rubicon towards weaponisation of its nuclear programme,” Ali Vaez, Iran project director at Crisis Group, said.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been more cautious in the face of persistent warnings from Washington about the risk of escalation. Israel has relied on US missile systems to help stave off Iranian attacks and uses US weapons to fight is wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
The direct exchange of fire began early in April when Israel hit an Iranian diplomatic compound in the Syrian capital Damascus. Iran responded with its first direct drone and missile attacks on Israel, which in turn launched a “limited” strike.
In July Israel killed Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, and in September assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah in Beirut. In October Iran fired 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, saying it was in response for those killings.
Both sides want to avoid full-blown war, allies and analysts say, and have calibrated each round of attacks accordingly. But collectively the exchanges of fire have edged the region into an unprecedented high-stakes confrontation.
“They are in an entirely new territory now, where the old red lines have become pink and the new red lines are nebulous,” said Vaez. “If the war in Gaza and Lebanon continue, Iran and Israel will inevitably find themselves on a collision course again, veering much closer to the brink of all-out war.”
Israel’s anti-missile system intercepts rockets after Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles on 1 October.
Looming over the confrontation between Iran and Israel is the question of who will lead the US from next year, with the presidential election little more than a week away. Donald Trump, a long-term Iran hawk, said on Saturday that if Israel’s government had “listened to Biden”, it would be “waiting for a bomb to drop on their head right now”, in comments to the podcaster Joe Rogan.
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