Iran FM Refuses To Acknowledge Israel Striking Airbase

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian refrained from acknowledging that Israel had a part in the Friday attack on a airbase in Iran as Tehran attempts to quell war talk.

“It has not been proven to us that there was a connection between this and Israel,” he said in an interview with NBC News.

Early Friday morning, explosions were heard in Esfahan's 8th Shekari Air Base as Israel reportedly launched a widely anticipated strike in retaliation to an Iranian aerial assault last weekend.

In an attempt to downplay the incident, Amir-Abdollahian said what happened “was not a strike.” According to Iran’s top diplomat, the projectiles used in the incident were “more like toys that our children play with.”

“They took off from inside Isfahan and they flew for a few hundred meters and then they were downed and struck by our air defense,” he went on to say, in what appears to be a veil to avoid retaliation as international powers push for calm.

Meanwhile, New York Times reported that according to the analysis of satellite imagery, the Friday precision strike on Isfahan (Esfahan) damaged or annihilated the “flip-lid” radar, a significant part of the air defense system in Shekari Air Base.

Prior to the incident, four trucks with missiles were positioned around the radar but the satellite images show they were not damaged in the strike. “The fact that they appear undamaged indicated that the attack had a very precise target,” New York Times wrote, citing a former US government imagery analyst.

Israel has not officially commented on the attack.

Tensions between Iran and Israel have risen sharply over recent weeks. On April 1, Israel launched a precision missile strike on Iran's consulate building in Damascus, killing 7 IRGC senior officers, including two senior commanders. In retaliation, Iran launched its first ever direct offensive against Israeli territory last weekend with more than 350 drones and cruise and ballistic missiles. Most were intercepted in a joint operation between Israel and its allies in a US-led coalition.