Middle East on High Alert: Israel’s Daring Airstrike on Iran Sparks Fears of Regional Inferno
- Israel launched a large-scale air strike on Iranian targets on Saturday, while Iraq declared an airspace closure to air traffic during the strikes, raising questions about the paths...
- Israeli sources reported the participation of warplanes and refueling aircraft in the strikes on Iran, including military sites.
- Iran said the air defense system had succeeded in repelling Israeli attacks on military targets in Tehran, Khuzestan and Elam, causing "limited damage" in some places.
Israel launched a large-scale air strike on Iranian targets on Saturday, while Iraq declared an airspace closure to air traffic during the strikes, raising questions about the paths taken by Israeli fighters and missiles.
Israeli sources reported the participation of warplanes and refueling aircraft in the strikes on Iran, including military sites.
Iran said the air defense system had succeeded in repelling Israeli attacks on military targets in Tehran, Khuzestan and Elam, causing “limited damage” in some places.
The planes reached Iran
Former pilot and military expert, Ismail Abu Ayyub, believes that Israeli warplanes have already entered Iranian airspace via Iraq.
“The Israeli planes reached Iran’s western border through Iraqi airspace (…) and the planes struck near Tehran passed over Syria and Iraq,” he said while speaking to the Al-Hura website.
Abu Ayyub confirmed that “fighters used in the attack were equipped with additional tanks, and refueling planes were used as the distance between Tel Aviv and Tehran is about two thousand kilometers.”
He asserted that Israeli planes “entered Iranian airspace and Israel said they used about 100 fighters in the attack.”
He noted that “Iran’s territory is large, and a certain depth must be reached to carry out an attack, because missiles like the Rampage have a range of only 250 kilometers, and that is not enough to reach the target.”
He noted that “Israel has ballistic missiles, but says it uses fighters and refueling aircraft.”
A Saudi official told Reuters on Saturday that the kingdom’s airspace was not used during Israeli airstrikes in Iran.
In a related context, a military source told Jordanian television that “no military aircraft are allowed to cross Jordanian airspace.”
“New Drama”
Abu Ayyub felt that what had happened was “a new game between Iran and Israel (…) and the latter considered that the strike had achieved its goal and that it had restored deterrence, and Iran said that if the strike did not hit an important target, There will be no reaction to it.”
The region has recently witnessed tense situations in anticipation of an Israeli response to an attack launched by Iran on October 1, during which it fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it was “attacking military targets in Iran in a precisely directed manner, in response to the Iranian regime’s continued attacks against the State of Israel in recent months.”
He added that he had completed his “directed” strikes on Iran and bombed missile and surface-to-air missile production facilities, and that his planes had returned safely.
He continued, “If Iran’s regime makes the mistake of starting a new round of escalation, we will be forced to respond.”
A US official said the targets did not include Iran’s energy infrastructure or nuclear facilities.
US President Joe Biden warned that Washington would not support any attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities and said Israel must study alternative targets for strikes on Iran’s oil fields.
Iranian authorities have repeatedly warned Israel against any attack on the country.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency, citing sources, said on Saturday: “Iran reserves the right to respond to any aggression and there is no doubt that Israel will face a proportionate response to any move.”
Videos on social media show air defenses encountering Israeli missiles near Tehran.
Tasnim news agency reported that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard bases were not targeted.
The agency also said Iran had decided to resume flights as normal from 9am local time after a brief suspension in the wake of the Israeli strike.
Neighboring Iraq announced the reopening of airspace to air traffic after briefly suspending flights at all airports during the strike.
“Drag the Gulf States”
For his part, the major general and military expert, Mr. Al-Jabri, warned that what is happening between Iran and Israel is “only a structural attack aimed at dragging the Arab Gulf states into an imaginary war that they do not need. A trap between Israel and Iran. Countries like Iraq and Syria.
Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan and Iraq condemned the Israeli attack on Iran and in separate statements called for calm, not to escalate the conflict and to reduce tensions.
“Neutrality” of the Gulf States… a double message and a knot between “rules”
The region is on the brink of a regional war between Israel and Iran after Hezbollah fired nearly 200 missiles at its enemy in response to an Israeli raid in the southern suburbs of Beirut that killed Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah. Last week, and Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s political bureau in Tehran, was killed, with Israel blamed.
Al-Jabri said, “Iran used the S-300 air defense system to counter Israeli missiles… Iran says it has shot down missiles and planes, but they are counted on fingers, and these are structural wars, not real ones. “
He explained, “The war between Iran and Israel was only a war of words, and the results of the attacks were almost insignificant, which could indicate the existence of some kind of agreement between the two sides (…) I appeal to the public for the wisdom not to be drawn into this despicable conspiracy.” .”