Israel And Iran Both Downplay Friday Attack

"Aida was transferred from the morality police detention center to Evin prison on Thursday morning, and from Evin to Shahr-e Rey women's prison," Nasrin Shakarami, Aida's mother, wrote on her personal Instagram account on Friday.

Over the weekend, Nasrin Shakarami revealed on social media that Aida had been detained for failing to wear the mandatory hijab.

Earlier this week, Iran's police initiated a renewed crackdown on unveiled women, using violence against detainees and those trying to intervene to prevent arrests.

Aida’s sister, 16-year-old Nika Shakarami, was abducted by security forces off Tehran’s Keshavarz Boulevard, while she was protesting against the regime amid the nationwide 2022 Women, Life, Freedom protests.

Nika’s body, reportedly subjected to torture, abuse, and beatings by security forces, was handed over to her family over a week after her disappearance.

Fearful of her gravesite becoming a location of protests, government agents secretly seized her body from her hometown of Khorramabad in Lorestan and buried her in one of the province’s villages instead.

At least 500 civilians, including children and teenagers, were killed when regime forces cracked down on the months-long protests following the killing of Mahsa Jina Amini by the so-called "morality police" in Tehran.

In remarks to the semi-official ILNA news outlet, Meshkini, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, emphasized that Iran is equipped with "the most advanced military equipment and precision missiles."

Early Friday morning, explosions were reported near the airport and an army base in Isfahan province, located in the central part of the country. The attack prompted Iran's air defense systems to be activated at several sites, according to state media.

While US officials have confirmed the attack, Israel has not yet acknowledged any involvement in the airstrike.

Iranian state media, controlled by the regime, is downplaying the strike. An official stated that the country’s air defenses intercepted three drones and denied any impacts from missiles.

Iranian media also reported that their nuclear sites remained secure and showed calm scenes in areas where explosions were reportedly heard.

This latest military action follows Iran attacks on Israel, where it launched hundreds of drone and missile strikes over the weekend. Tehran says it was retaliating for a widely believed Israeli attack on Iran’s purported consulate in Syria, which killed several high-ranking Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) officials.

Before the Friday attack on Iran, Esmail Kowsari, another parliamentarian on the national security commission, spoke about potential actions against Israeli nuclear facilities.

"If necessary, it will definitely be done," Kowsari told Jamaran news.

He emphasized that Iran does not seek conflict with any regional country, but that it will be considered if they act “maliciously”.

According to an exclusive report by the Guardian on Thursday, the investigators are looking into whether one of the suspects has connections to Albania.

The investigators interviewed by The Guardian believe that the assailants were recruited and flown to the UK specifically to execute the assault.

Iran International presenter Pouria Zeraati was stabbed outside his home in Wimbledon, in south London, late in March and sustained leg injuries.

Shortly after the attack, London Metropolitan Police announced that considering previous threats against journalists in Persian-language media outlets, the incident is being handled by specialized officers from the Met's counter-terrorism division. Earlier in the month, London Metropolitan police said the three suspects fled the UK after the attack, triggering an international manhunt.

Guardian further reported that Western sources believe that those likely responsible for the attack, presumed to be acting in the interests of the Iranian regime, utilized connections and insights into criminal networks to recruit the assailants.

Senior British counter-terrorism officials, as per The Guardian's report, believe that employing "criminal proxies provides Tehran with plausible deniability" as those recruited are unlikely to be on terror watchlists which would prevent them from entering the UK.

Last year, federal indictments revealed that three individuals linked to an Eastern European mafia group were charged by the United States for plotting to assassinate Iranian-American journalist and activist Masih Alinejad at the request of the Iranian regime.

The US Justice Department announced that the Eastern European mafia group charged "has ties to Iran and is violent, engaging in murders, kidnappings, assaults, and extortions".

“If the fake Zionist regime wants to use the threat of attacking nuclear sites to put pressure on Iran, it is possible and conceivable for the Islamic Republic to revise its nuclear doctrine and policies, and deviate from its past declared considerations,” said Ahmad Haghtalab, who is in charge of the security of Iran’s nuclear sites.

His remarks came a day after Zohar Palti, the former intelligence director at the Israeli spy agency Mossad, announced that Israel has many options on the table to retaliate Tehran’s recent missile and drone attacks and could even choose to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities.

According to Haghtalab, Israel’s threats to target Iran’s nuclear facilities “are not from today or yesterday” and Israel has already been involved in “sabotage and terrorist acts” to stop Iran’s nuclear program over the past years.

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One of the most significant attacks on Iran’s nuclear program occurred in 2010 when the Stuxnet computer virus disrupted the control systems of the country’s most sensitive and tightly watched nuclear facility in Natanz.

The Dutch daily Volkskrant reported in January that the malware, widely believed to be an American-Israeli creation, was delivered by a Dutch engineer working at the enrichment plant.

In 2020 and 2021, two internal explosions hit Iran's highly protected Natanz uranium enrichment facility, inflicting considerable damage. The attacks were attributed to Israel, although Iran's chief adversary never took responsibility. In November 2020, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, known as the father of Iran's nuclear program was assassinated in broad daylight near Tehran.

Further in his remarks, IRGC Commander Haghtalab threatened that the Iranian government can target Israel’s nuclear sites if the Jewish state decides to respond to Iran’s recent offensive on the Israeli territory: “The nuclear sites of the Zionist enemy have been identified and we have the information we need on all targets. In case of their so-called retaliation, our hands are on the trigger to fire powerful missiles to destroy specified targets.”

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On Saturday night, Iran launched its first ever direct offensive against Israeli territory with more than 350 drones and cruise and ballistic missiles. The Israeli army announced that 99% of the projectiles were intercepted and downed.

According to IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, Iran shut down its nuclear facilities last Sunday over “security considerations.” He confirmed that the facilities had reopened within 24 hours, but with no IAEA supervision, as the agency decided to temporarily keep its inspectors away until the situation is “completely calm.”

When asked about the possibility of Israel hitting Iran’s nuclear sites, Grossi said, “We are always concerned about this possibility.” The UN nuclear chief also reiterated the IAEA’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.

Iranian officials have always maintained that Tehran’s nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes. But nuclear experts are almost unanimous in their assessment that enrichment to the levels and in the amounts that Iran has been doing since 2021 cannot be justified in the absence of a weapons program.

In February, Ali-Akbar Salehi, the former head of Iran's nuclear agency, implied that the country has everything it needs for an A-bomb: "We have [crossed] all the thresholds of nuclear science and technology. Here's an example: Imagine what a car needs; it needs a chassis, an engine, a steering wheel, a gearbox. You're asking if we've made the gearbox, I say yes. Have we made the engine? Yes, but each one serves its own purpose."

On Wednesday, an advisor to Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf hinted at Tehran’s military use of its nuclear program. “Iran has a nuclear program in addition to its missile program,” wrote Mehdi Mohammadi on X in what can be construed as a shrouded threat against Israel and its allies.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Marandi, a political analyst close to Iran’s hardliners, claimed that Iran has not yet used “its most advanced weapons” against Israel. When asked if Iran might use nuclear weapons, he said, “Iran is not like the United States which has and uses and has already used nuclear weapons.”

In November, an IAEA confidential report indicated that Iran has enough uranium enriched to up to 60% for three atomic bombs.

Israel has said it will retaliate against Iran's April 13 missile and drone attack, which Tehran says was carried out in response to an Israeli strike on its consulate in Damascus earlier this month.

"In case of any use of force by the Israeli regime and violating our sovereignty, the Islamic Republic of Iran will not hesitate a bit to assert its inherent rights to give a decisive and proper response to it to make the regime regret its actions," said Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

His remarks came after an Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said earlier on Thursday that Iran could review its "nuclear doctrine" following Israeli threats.

At a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged maximum restraint.

"It is high time to end the bloody cycle of retaliation. It is high time to stop," Guterres said. "The international community must work together to prevent any actions that could push the entire Middle East over the edge, with a devastating impact on civilians."

Speaking earlier on Thursday in the Security Council, Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan criticized Amir-Abdollahian's presence at the world body.

"He is here to make a mockery of you. He is here to show you all – in your suits and with your diplomatic niceties – that his country can launch an attack on another member state on Saturday, and then he can come here on Thursday to lecture you all on human rights and international law," Erdan said.

(Report by Reuters)