Iran reportedly sent waves of missiles and drones towards Israel on April 14 as a response to an attack that Iranian leaders believe was carried out by Israel on the Iranian consulate in Syria earlier in April. However, only a few of these weapons were able to breach Israel’s “Iron Dome” defense system and those that did only caused light damage. Iran said that it warned the United States, a key Israeli ally, of the attack but U.S. officials dispute those claims.
As ABC 7 reported, the tension between Israel and Iran has only escalated since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, in large part driven by Iraq’s belief that Israel needs to stop the war it is waging in Gaza. The conflict reached a boiling point after the alleged attack on the Iranian consulate building by Israeli forces was met with threats of a response in kind from Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni and President Ebrahim Rasi, as well as the Iran-backed Syrian militant group Hezbollah.
Reuters reported that Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told reporters that they had warned their neighboring countries and the United States of their attack, and a source within Turkey’s Foreign Ministry told the outlet that they had relayed messages to both Israel and the United States as an intermediary. “Iran said the reaction would be a response to Israel’s attack on its embassy in Damascus and that it would not go beyond this. We were aware of the possibilities. The developments were not a surprise,” the source said.
An anonymous senior official in the Biden Administration has contradicted Amir-Abdollahian’s statement, telling Reuters, “That is absolutely not true. They did not give a notification, nor did they give any sense of … ‘these will be the targets, so evacuate them.’” The official indicated that the U.S. had been in contact with intermediaries in Switzerland but only received word from Tehran, the Iranian capital, once the attacks had started.
“We received a message from the Iranians as this was ongoing, through the Swiss.” The official told Reuters, “This was basically suggesting that they were finished after this, but it was still an ongoing attack. So that was (their) message to us.”
However, officials from Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq all said that Iran provided warnings of the attack on the week of April 8, including some details about the attack they planned on Israel. On April 12 and 13, U.S. officials declared that they expected an attack from Iran and President Joe Biden issued a one-word message to Iran, “Don’t.”
Despite that terse warning, and the circulation of a statement from National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson declaring the support of the United States towards Israel’s defense and security, the United States has not pledged any military support to Israel.
As Politico reported, both publicly and privately, President Biden has been urging restraint from Israel in hopes of avoiding a major conflict in the Middle East. According to a U.S. official given anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy, the hope is that in the event Israel does respond, that it ends the conflict. “We’re advising them to take a breath before responding,” the official said. In the event Israel does respond, “it needs to be proportional and bring this cycle to an end.”
Politico also reported that even though Biden has been more critical of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli offensive in Gaza, he did not mention that Israel’s alleged attack on the Iranian consulate has left some officials frustrated that in striking at Iranian military leaders, they attacked a diplomatic building to do so. According to Politico, another senior U.S. official believes that the only person who might want a war is Netanyahu, who he referred to by his nickname, Bibi. “Nobody except maybe Bibi wants this to get out of control.”
Iranian leaders, meanwhile, indicated that unless Israel responded, their acts of aggression were done. Amir-Abdollahian issued a statement declaring that Iran would only defend themselves if necessary. “At this point, the Islamic Republic of Iran has no intention of continuing defensive operations, but if necessary it will not hesitate to protect its legitimate interests against any new aggression.”
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