Israel carried out a clandestine drone strike targeting a defence compound in Iran, as the US and Israel look for new ways to contain Tehran’s nuclear and military ambitions, according to US officials and people familiar with the operation.
Iranian officials said that the country had thwarted an attempted attack by three small quadcopters targeting a munitions factory in the city of Isfahan, right next to a site belonging to the Iran Space Research Centre, which has been sanctioned by the US for its work on Iran’s ballistic-missile program.
Iran said its air defences brought down one of the drones while the two others exploded above the warehouse, causing minor damage to the roof.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian called the blast a cowardly strike.
“Such actions cannot impact the determination and intent of our experts for peaceful nuclear progress,” he said, according to government news service PadDolat.
The Israeli military declined to comment.
The strike marks the first known attack carried out by Israel under the new far-right coalition government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who sanctioned a series of bold operations inside Iran when he last served in that role from 2009 to 2021.
Israel’s latest strike comes as Israeli and American officials are discussing new ways to combat Iran’s destabilising operations, including its deepening military co-operation with Russia.
Read the article by Dion Nissenbaum and Benoit Faucon in The Australian (from The Wall Street Journal).