Dubai:

Iranian officials should determine how best to demonstrate Iran’s power to Israel after the Israeli attack on Iran two nights ago, Iran’s official IRNA news agency cited the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying on Sunday.

“The evil committed by the Zionist regime (Israel) two nights ago should neither be downplayed nor exaggerated”, IRNA cited Khamenei as saying.

Iran on Saturday played down Israel’s overnight air attack against Iranian military targets, saying it caused only limited damage, as US President Joe Biden called for a halt to escalation that has raised fears of an all-out conflagration in the Middle East.

Scores of Israeli jets completed three waves of strikes before dawn against missile factories and other sites near Tehran and in western Iran, Israel’s military said.

Khamenei said Iran’s power should be demonstrated to Israel, adding that the way to do so should be “determined by the officials and that which is in the best interest of the people and the country should take place”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Syria expressed its “solidarity” with Iran.

Paris, France:

From hitjobs to sabotages and cyberattacks, Israel has either been blamed for or has itself claimed a variety of attacks against Iran.

In Israel’s sights are Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Tehran’s nuclear programme.

As Israel launched a series of air strikes Saturday, which it said were aimed at Iran’s military infrastructure, AFP looks at the other attempts over the years.

Revolutionary Guard

Israel has been blamed for targeting top members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, mostly in attempts outside their country’s borders.

Latest victims include a general killed on September 27 by the side of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli strike in the suburbs of Beirut. 

An air strike blamed on Israel on Iran’s consular annex building in Damascus on April 1, 2024 killed, according to Tehran, seven members of the Revolutionary Guards, including two of top rank.

The recent killings are only the latest in a long list.

In December 2023, a commander died in Syria in an attack blamed on Israel, a year after a colonel was killed, also in Syria. 

In May 2022, Sayyad Khodaei, a member of the Quds Force, the unit in charge of the Guards’ external operations, was gunned down by two motorcyclists on his way home in Tehran. According to the New York Times, Israel told the United States that it was responsible for the hitjob. 

General Hassan Moghadam, responsible for armament programmes, was killed in an explosion at a munitions depot in November 2011 close to Tehran, in an operation blamed on the United States and Israel.

Iran’s nuclear programme

Israel has also been accused of carrying out targeted assassinations against several high-ranking Iranian physicists, often linked to Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Among them are nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, killed in November 2020 and presented after his death as a vice minister of defence. 

Scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, who was working on the Natanz nuclear site, and Majid Shahriari, the founder of Iran’s nuclear society, as well as particle physics professor Massoud Ali Mohammadi were others killed over the years.

Israel has also been accused of sabotaging Iranian nuclear installations, mainly the Natanz complex to the south of Tehran.

On April 11, 2021, the site saw a small explosion, according to Iran’s atomic energy agency.

The New York Times reported that Israel played a part in the “strong blast” that apparently took out the internal electric system supplying uranium enrichment centrifuges.

Another “accident” also hit Natanz in July 2020, in what Iran’s atomic agency had said was a “sabotage”.

In September 2010, a cyberattack using the Stuxnet virus took out the enrichment centrifuges at Natanz. 

Iran accused Israel and the United States, while information security experts also pointed the finger at Washington. 

Iran’s allies

Iran’s allies too have found that Tehran is not always safe shelter.

Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed on July 31 in Iran’s capital in an attack blamed on Israel. He was in Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iranian petrol

In March 2021, the Wall Street Journal, citing US and Middle East officials, reported that Israel had in 2019 targeted at least a dozen vessels travelling to Syria and in most cases, transporting Iranian petrol.

The report said Israel had deployed underwater mines in the assault.

Through 2021, Israel and Iran accused each other of naval sabotages.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

U.S. President Joe Biden. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

President Joe Biden said he was discussing possible Israeli strikes on Iranian oil facilities, in comments that sent oil prices spiking Thursday just a month before the U.S. presidential election.

Mr. Biden told reporters at the White House however that he was not expecting Israel to launch any retaliation for Tehran’s missile barrage on Israel before Thursday at least.

Israel-Lebanon conflict LIVE updates

When asked by a reporter if he supported Israel striking Iran’s oil facilities, Mr. Biden said “we’re discussing that. I think that would be a little… anyway.”

Oil prices jumped five per cent over concerns about the Middle East after Biden spoke.

A rise in oil prices could be hugely damaging for Mr. Biden’s Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrat confronts Republican former president Donald Trump in a November 5 election where the cost of living is a major issue.

Mr. Biden said he did not expect any immediate action from Israel — even if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently paid little heed to calls for restraint as he targets the Iran-allied Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

“First of all, we don’t ‘allow’ Israel, we advise Israel. And there is nothing going to happen today,” Mr. Biden told reporters when asked if he would allow Israel to retaliate against Iran.

Mr. Biden said on Wednesday that he would not back Israel attacking Iranian nuclear sites.

Iran launched around 200 rockets in a direct missile attack on Israel on Tuesday, prompting Netanyahu to warn that Tehran would pay.

Iran said it was in retaliation for the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has been launching rockets at Israel since shortly after the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Iran’s Palestinian ally Hamas, and Israel’s crushing retaliatory offensive in Gaza.

Washington:

Iran could launch a “significant” attack on Israel as soon as this week, the White House said Monday, as US President Joe Biden discussed the crisis with European leaders.

“We have to be prepared for what could be a significant set of attacks,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

“We share the same concerns and expectations that our Israeli counterparts have with respect to potential timing here — could be this week,” added Kirby.

Kirby’s comments came as the United States is rushing an aircraft carrier strike group and a guided missile submarine to the region in a show of support for Israel.

Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group have vowed to avenge last month’s killings of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.

Biden called the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Britain on Monday to discuss the growing tensions, the White House added.

The call was “largely for all the leaders to repeat what they have said before in terms of reaffirming Israel’s defense” and to “send a strong message that we don’t want to see any rise in violence, any attacks by Iran or its proxies.”

The leaders also called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, with difficult talks set for Thursday on halting the conflict that started when the Palestinian group attacked Israel on October 7.

The call came shortly after Biden returned to the Oval Office after a long weekend at his beach house in Delaware.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Palestinian Territories:

Palestinian group Hamas said Wednesday that Iran’s weekend attack on Israel was a “legitimate and deserved” response to a strike on the Islamic Republic’s consulate in Syria.

In its first reaction to the Iranian aerial attack, Hamas said it was a “legitimate and deserved response to the Zionist entity’s… targeting of the Iranian consulate building in Damascus” on April 1.

“The response from the Islamic Republic of Iran confirms that the time when the Zionist entity (Israeli) could act as it wanted without accountability or punishment has ended,” Hamas added in a statement.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)