Iran-Israel tension takes pause amid signs of US-led diplomatic response

Fear of Iran-Israel war subsides as Joe Biden cools off temper

By Manish Anand

New Delhi, April 14: Iran has said that it has no intention to continue with “defensive operations”. Iran has claimed that its defensive operations asserted its role in regional and international peace. Israel’s war cabinet has turned down the proposal of a counter-attack against Israel.

Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amir Abdollahian, said: “Iran will not hesitate to protect its legitimate interests. Exercising the right of legitimate defense shows Iran’s responsible approach to regional and international peace and security.”

Abdollahian also said that “at this point, the Islamic Republic of Iran has no intention of continuing defensive operations”. However, he added: But if necessary, it will not hesitate to protect its legitimate interests against any new aggression.”

The New York Times in a report has claimed that Israel’s war cabinet turned down a proposal for counter-attack against Iran. The NYT quoted two unnamed Israeli officials, saying that the option to attack Iran has been turned down.

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The US President, Joe Biden, spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the day. Biden has impressed upon Netanyahu to not launch a counter-attack against Iran, claimed a number of news reports.

Iranian Mehr Agency has said that the Revolutionary Guards used “Shahed-136 drones and Khaybar-4 missiles in response to Israeli actions”. Iranian media outlets are hailing the attacks on Israel. They are giving the backdrop to the bombing of the Iranian consular in Damascus, Syria in which 12 Iranian nationals were killed. A top ranking military officer of Iran had also been killed in the Damascus attack.

A number of reports in the western media stated the US, the UK, and Jordan eliminated 99 per cent of the Iranian attacks. Jordan also pressed into action its Air Force to take down the Iranian missiles and drones.

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But the Arabian media are lauding Iran’s attack on Israel. They argue that Iran has scripted “its name in the history books”. The Arabian media are claiming that “Iran carried out one of the most impressive military operations in history”.

Bruno Maçães, a strategic thinker, remarked in a post on X: “Jordan downed those drones over its airspace because otherwise US aircraft would have done it, which would arguably look even worse to its increasingly restive public opinion.” It is noteworthy to mention that the Jordanian monarchy is facing the challenge of a restive population in the wake of the Israeli bombings of Gaza.

Yet, there are loud thinking in some quarters of impending Israeli attacks on the nuclear facilities of Iran. “Very curious to learn what, if any, steps Iran has taken to protect its nuclear program ahead of tonight. Location of stockpiles of 60%, 20%, and advanced centrifuges? Status of air defense around its key nuclear sites? Would be very surprised if it’s business as usual,” remarked Eric Brewer, another expert in matters of geo-strategy.

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It may be noted that the US had not been able to force Iran to abandon its nuclear programmes. Iran has been a close ally of both Russia and China. Reports also suggest that Iran helped Russia to replenish its stock of drones and missiles for the Ukraine War.

However, Iranian Chief of Staff Bagheri sounded that Tehran had no intention to escalate the tension with Israel. “Iran has completed a retaliatory operation for the killing of senior military commanders at the Damascus consulate,”

Bagheri told Iranian media outlets. He has warned that “Iran will respond harshly if Israel attacks them either on its territory or in Syria or any other country”. But Israel is already carrying out attacks in Lebanon. It may be noted that Iran had launched attacks against Israel from its facilities in Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq.

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Meanwhile, David Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv has resumed normal operations. Iran has also reopened its airspace over Tehran. It may be noted that Air India had yesterday said that the carrier would be avoiding the air space of Iran. Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq have also opened their airspace, according to the media reports.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s Minister of National Security, said early on Sunday: “Israel needs a crushing attack.” His remarks had come before Biden called Netanyahu. In some quarters, it was being said that “Israel will retaliate against Iran in the next 48 hours”.

But the prospects of Iran launching 2000 missiles against Israel may act as a deterrence. A British commander told Sky News that the scale of Iran’s attacks has been the “biggest drone attack in history”. Richard Kemp, the British commander and retired officer, said: “I think the goal was to disable Israel’s missile defenses. And this happened because I myself know about direct collisions, and there are probably more of them that we still do not know about.”

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Kremp appeared to be giving credence to the claims of Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Major General Hussein Salami. The IRGC chief was quoted by Tasnim News as having said: “Iranian missiles and drones were able to penetrate the supposedly strong air defense system of the Israeli regime. We know that our operation was more successful than we expected. Our reaction to any Israeli aggression will be more severe.”

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