Dubai/Jerusalem: Explosions echoed over an Iranian city last week in what sources described as an Israeli attack, but Tehran played down the incident and indicated it had no plans for retaliation - a response that appeared gauged towards averting region-wide war.
The limited scale of the attack and Iran's muted response appeared to signal a successful effort by diplomats who have been working to avert all-out war since an Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel earlier.Iranian media and officials described a small number of explosions, which they said resulted from air defences hitting three drones over the city of Isfahan in central Iran.
Notably, they referred to the incident as an attack by “infiltrators”, rather than by Israel, obviating the need for retaliation.
A senior Iranian official said there were no plans to respond against Israel for the incident. “The foreign source of the incident has not been confirmed. We have not received any external attack, and the discussion leans more towards infiltration than attack,” the official said.
Jonathan Lord, head of the Middle East security programme at the Center for a New American Security, a US think tank, said that “seems to indicate that Iran is seeking to step down off the ledge, minimise the impact of the attack, and perhaps walk back down the escalation ladder from here”.
AI suspends Tel Aviv flights till April 30
Air India said its flights to and from Tel Aviv will remain suspended till April 30 amid tensions in the Middle East. The airline operates four weekly flights between New Delhi and the Israeli city. "Air India flights to and from Tel Aviv will remain suspended until 30th April 2024, in view of the emerging situation in the Middle East. We are continuously monitoring the situation," an airline spokesperson said in a statement.
