Iran accuses Israel for Isfahan drone attack

• Neither Israel nor Iran has admitted responsibility for the attack.
• The two nations are bitter rivals and have been waging a “shadow war” in recent years.
• Unreported assaults on one another’s assets, infrastructure, and citizens.

Iran has attributed a drone attack on a military facility in the city of Isfahan on Saturday to Israel.

Its ambassador to the UN said findings indicated Israel “was responsible for this attempted act of aggression”.

Iran, he said, reserves the right “to respond resolutely to any threats or wrongful actions” by Israel.

Iran claims the attack caused modest damage, although this has not been independently verified; neither Israel nor Iran has admitted responsibility for the attack.

The two nations are bitter rivals and have been waging a “shadow war” in recent years, launching unreported assaults on one another’s assets, infrastructure, and citizens.

Israel is best renowned for its attacks on militants in Lebanon whom it claims were receiving Iranian weapons shipments, but it is also suspected of sabotaging Iran’s nuclear facilities and murdering Iranian nuclear scientists.

Israel has accused Iran, which opposes Israel’s right to exist, of attacking and preparing to strike Israeli and Jewish targets and people.

Additionally, both sides are thought to have assaulted one another’s vessels.

Iranian ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani charged Israel with making “an effort… to launch a terrorist attack against a workshop complex” that belonged to Iran’s defense ministry in a letter to the UN secretary general.

He made no mention of Iran’s supporting documentation.

Mr. Iravani said Iran reserved the right to respond “wherever and whenever deemed necessary”.

Although it is unknown what the attacked plant was for, indications indicate that it may have something to do with making missiles.

Unnamed US sources were quoted by US media as suggesting that Israel was responsible for the strike on Saturday night about 23:30, which Iran claimed involved three drones (20:00 GMT).

According to Iran, two were intercepted by “defense traps” and one was destroyed by air defense systems, causing minor structural damage but no casualties.

If confirmed, it would be the first documented attack on an Iranian site during the current Israeli administration, which came to power at the end of December under Benjamin Netanyahu.

In an interview with Media on Tuesday, Mr. Netanyahu said Israel had been “taking action against certain weapons development” in Iran, but neither confirmed nor denied it had attacked the site in Isfahan.

“I never talk about specific operations… and every time some explosion takes place in the Middle East, Israel is blamed or given responsibility – sometimes we are sometimes we’re not,” he said.

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